Skip to main content

Building the first experimental payload to make oxygen on the moon

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it has chosen a team to make oxygen on the moon. The team, led by aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, will design and build a payload to create oxygen from lunar soil.

As the moon has no atmosphere, future explorers will need to bring everything they need to survive with them. But carrying oxygen into space using rockets is inefficient, so it would be better if astronauts could find ways to make what they need in the places they are exploring. This principle is called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and is a key idea for future missions to the moon and Mars.

ESA research fellow Alexandre Meurisse and Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow producing oxygen and metal out of simulated moondust inside ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory.
ESA research fellow Alexandre Meurisse and Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow producing oxygen and metal out of simulated moondust inside ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory. ESA–A. Conigili

The payload for the moon will be designed to create between 50 and 100 grams of oxygen from the dusty material which covers the moon, called regolith. The aim is to extract 70% of the available oxygen in the sample within a 10 day period. That time limit is because it will need to operate within the window of available solar power in a lunar day, which is around two weeks long.

Recommended Videos

Previous experiments and concepts have shown that it is possible to extract oxygen from lunar regolith, which is made up of around 40 – 45% oxygen by weight. Now, the challenge is to make a workable system within the constraints of size and materials.

“The payload needs to be compact, low power, and able to fly on a range of potential lunar landers, including ESA’s own European Large Logistics Lander, EL3,” said David Binns, Systems Engineer from ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility, in a statement.

If the team can meet this challenge, the technology has the potential to enable future crewed moon missions, Binns said: “Being able to extract oxygen from moonrock, along with useable metals, will be a game-changer for lunar exploration, allowing the international explorers set to return to the Moon to ‘live off the land’ without being dependent on long and expensive terrestrial supply lines.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
China makes history by returning the first sample from far side of the moon
This photo taken on June 25, 2024 shows the retrieval site of the return capsule of the Chang'e-6 probe in Siziwang Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

This photo taken on June 25, 2024, shows the retrieval site of the return capsule of the Chang'e-6 probe in Siziwang Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Xinhua/Jin Liwang

A Chinese space mission has made history by bringing the first lunar sample from the far side of the moon back to Earth. The Chang'e-6 mission landed on the moon's far side earlier this month, where it collected a sample that was returned to Earth on Tuesday, June 25.

Read more
China’s Chang’e 6 mission blasts off from lunar surface carrying moon rocks
This image shows China's Chang'e 6 lander on the surface of the moon.

This image shows China's Chang'e 6 lander on the surface of the moon. CNSA

China's Chang'e 6 mission, which made an impressive touchdown on the moon this past weekend, has scooped up samples from the lunar surface and has now taken off. It has departed the moon to carry the samples back to Earth for study, as reported by China's state news agency.

Read more
Billionaire calls off moon flyby adventure
Yusaku Maezawa announcing his plan to fly around the moon.

Yusaku Maezawa aboard the ISS in 2021. Yusaku Maezawa

A Japanese billionaire has canceled his plan to fly around the moon on SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever developed.

Read more