Happy New Year everyone! I had a nice extended break and now I'm back to what appears to be a very busy time. I anticipate light (lite, actually, but that isn't a word according to spellcheck) blogging for some time until the pace of work and life slows down a bit). I did want to note this interesting report on the Space.com site about How Moon Dust Could Yield Oxygen, Fuel and Water :
Recently, a team of scientists working for the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) demonstrated its first field test for NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project. Research Operations Manager John Hamilton supported the mission simulation to show how astronauts will be able to prospect for resources on the moon to make their own oxygen, fuel and water from lunar rocks and soil. A key motivation of these experiments is the fact that almost half the moon, by weight, is made of oxygen. [...] NASA's lunar exploration plan says that on-site lunar resources could generate about one to two metric tons of oxygen per year, enough to support four to six people annually. Since it takes about 100 kilograms (kg) of soil to get 1 kg of oxygen, team leaders are looking at electrostatic and magnetic separation techniques to possibly concentrate the soil and increase the production rate.
I like these kinds of reports because they point to the viability of a lunar colony. Research continues and the methods of extracting oxygen will be refined, so the future of this plan looks very promising.
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