UK Firm To Turn Moon Rock Into Oxygen and Building Materials (theguardian.com) 54
A British firm has won a European Space Agency contract to develop the technology to turn moon dust and rocks into oxygen, leaving behind aluminium, iron and other metal powders for lunar construction workers to build with. The Guardian reports: If the process can be made to work well enough, it will pave the way for extraction facilities on the moon that make oxygen and valuable materials on the surface, rather than having to haul them into space at enormous cost. Analyses of rocks brought back from the moon reveal that oxygen makes up about 45% of the material by weight. The remainder is largely iron, aluminium and silicon. In work published this year, scientists at Metalysis and the University of Glasgow found they could extract 96% of the oxygen from simulated lunar soil, leaving useful metal alloy powders behind.
The Esa contract will fund Metalysis for nine months to perfect an electrochemical process that releases oxygen from lunar dust and rocks by sending an electrical current through the material. The process is already used on Earth, but the oxygen is released as an unwanted byproduct of mineral extraction. To make it work for lunar explorers, the oxygen must be captured and stored. Under the contract, the firm will try to boost the yield and purity of oxygen and metals from the rock while reducing the amount of energy the process consumes. If the technology looks promising, the next step will be to demonstrate oxygen extraction on the moon. The oxygen released from the lunar surface can be combined with other gases to produce breathable air, but it is also a vital component of rocket propellant that could be manufactured on the moon and used to refuel spacecraft bound for deep space.
The Esa contract will fund Metalysis for nine months to perfect an electrochemical process that releases oxygen from lunar dust and rocks by sending an electrical current through the material. The process is already used on Earth, but the oxygen is released as an unwanted byproduct of mineral extraction. To make it work for lunar explorers, the oxygen must be captured and stored. Under the contract, the firm will try to boost the yield and purity of oxygen and metals from the rock while reducing the amount of energy the process consumes. If the technology looks promising, the next step will be to demonstrate oxygen extraction on the moon. The oxygen released from the lunar surface can be combined with other gases to produce breathable air, but it is also a vital component of rocket propellant that could be manufactured on the moon and used to refuel spacecraft bound for deep space.
Pure poison (Score:1)
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But for just £29.99 you can buy my product that clears out these lunar toxins from your body, see here for details!
Re:Pure poison (Score:5, Interesting)
You jest, but a simple device can actually solve the dust problem on the moon,
Lunar dust is sharp. There is no wind or water on the moon and thus no erosion. So sharp corners and edges formed by micrometeorites are never worn away. If you inhale or ingest the dust, it can cut up your lungs or intestines.
Lunar dust is also highly electrostatic. It clings to everything.
But the electrostatic attraction also offers a solution. Put electrostatic plates of opposite charge on the walls of all human habitats and the electric field will pull the dust out of the air. Then periodically turn off the charge and wipe off the dust.
If lunar regolith is going to be used to grow crops, it can be prepared by shoveling it into rotating drums to wear away the edges.
Lunar regolith can also be used to produce a substance similar to concrete called Lunarcrete [wikipedia.org], and the sharp edges give the particles a stronger bond.
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Can you verify your last statement. You are say the same thing that is a disadvantage for the health effects, also becomes a benefit for building stronger materials. In particular lunarcrete is a stronger building material than concrete?
I am wondering also if you can speak about other challenges in construction with lunar habitats? We still need a magnetic sphere of some kind to better deal with charged particles right? One solution to this is underground habitats. How does that contrast with building lunar
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The internet can provide if you are willing to do a little legwork.
Back here on Earth, it is well known that the roughness of sand and aggregate can have a significant impact on the strength of concrete. This is why, for instance, all that sand from the Sahara and other deserts is not used for producing
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Put electrostatic plates of opposite charge on the walls of all human habitats and the electric field will pull the dust out of the air. Then periodically turn off the charge and wipe off the dust.
Or just circulate the air through an electrostatic filter and then clean the filter?
Re: Pure poison (Score:1)
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If you're going to do it, do it properly:
"The bean counters told me we literally could not afford to buy seven dollars worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million. Bought ‘em anyway. Engineers said the moon rocks were too volatile to experiment on. Tested on ‘em anyway. Ground ‘em up, mixed em into a gel. And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill. Still, it turns out they’re a great portal conductor." - Cave Johnson
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Sounds like a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go. Like someone waiting for the Trump victory party. But THE ILLEGAL VOTES! None of which have emerged. Maybe Trump isn't avoiding the ignominy of defeat. Maybe he has a severe case of constipation. The way he swings a golf club it looks like he's been backed up for days. But as for moon rocks, we probably will crunch a bunch of them for air well before the MAGA crowd get another candidate in the White House. Hehheh
Would be a decent post if you had just ignored the orange man behind the curtain. The wizard, or should I say lizard of OZ will just get on a Soviet Rocket with his buddy from the Kremlin and beat Elon Musk to the moon, taking enough Sputnik 5 with them to protect their construction workers and oxygen rock crunching morlocks. Meanwhile the MAGA crowd and Russian Mafia has their guns loaded in their pickups and limos and will protect their majesties from any attempts by criminal Hillary and Joe to prevent th
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But THE ILLEGAL VOTES!
Maybe not illegal votes, but definitely vote fraud [timesleader.com]. By a Republican [cbsnews.com]. Again [cbsnews.com].
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Sounds like a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go. Like someone waiting for the Trump victory party. But THE ILLEGAL VOTES! None of which have emerged.
From Nick Arama:
There have been a lot of allegations of voter fraud and irregularities across the states currently being contested in the election.
But one of them, in Clark County, Nevada seems pretty hard to argue away, and it may be the sign of a much wider fraud.
Rosemarie Hartle voted in the 2020 election. But there was a small problem with that. Rosemarie Hartle died in 2017 of breast cancer, as her husband Kirk explained. The records show that the ballot was sent October 9 and returned the day bef
Re: all dressed up (Score:2)
"Then I guess that would be the first time somebody's lied under oath."
--The Social Network
The problem is that energy is too expensive (Score:2)
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It would be easier to turn gold into platinum.
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The robotics being unreliable is the bigger blocker. Energy is cheap, solar panels would be fine.
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Solar power on the moon sounds like a great idea until you realise that the lunar day is 708.7 hours long. So for about 350 hours the panels would be running at over 100C which reduces their efficiency, and for the next 350 hours they will be experiencing temperatures below -100C. That kind of thermal cycling is pretty hard on the connectors and cables.
It's also bad news for any human settlement because it means either massive energy storage, or some other form of power generation to supply heat and power
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Which is why orbital solar power is always a decent measure of a species technological achievement. The Kardashev Scale specific outlines that Type II harvest all the energy from a star which assumably is a dyson sphere. In practicality this is not very useful if it's a solar system with life because you now killed off al life that depends on light (which is most). So Dyson rings are purposed. In general, it seems the tools necessary for Type II civilization will begin development long before we are really
Re: The problem is that energy is too expensive (Score:1)
Which is why orbital solar power is always a decent measure of a species technological achievement.
Always??
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Solar power on the moon sounds like a great idea until you realise that the lunar day is 708.7 hours long. So for about 350 hours the panels would be running at over 100C which reduces their efficiency, and for the next 350 hours they will be experiencing temperatures below -100C. That kind of thermal cycling is pretty hard on the connectors and cables.
Hordes of companies are aching to sell you "space grade" connectors and cabling which will withstand a wide temp cycle, radiation, vibration and even atomic oxygen in low earth orbit. Only problem being, each little component costing a fortune.
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Hordes of companies are aching to sell you "space grade" connectors and cabling which will withstand a wide temp cycle, radiation, vibration and even atomic oxygen in low earth orbit. Only problem being, each little component costing a fortune.
You're joking right? Monster Cable already has thousands of pre-orders.
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Hard, maybe, but not insurmountable in the slightest. If it were not possible to deal with, then we would have no solar-powered satellites in low-Earth orbit, which experience 16 freeze/thaw cycles per day during a service life lasting years or decades.
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Yeah, what 917438 said. +1.
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Perhaps the most efficient means of energy storage to even out the temperature is just to go underground. There, like here on Earth, temperatures are nearly constant. Or, at the very least, have a surface dwelling with thick walls made of regolith, as has been practiced in adobe construction for hundreds or thousands of years.
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Solar power on the moon sounds like a great idea until you realise that the lunar day is 708.7 hours long. So for about 350 hours the panels would be running at over 100C which reduces their efficiency, and for the next 350 hours they will be experiencing temperatures below -100C. That kind of thermal cycling is pretty hard on the connectors and cables.
It's also bad news for any human settlement because it means either massive energy storage, or some other form of power generation to supply heat and power during the lunar night.
So build the power station(s) near the poles. Here's [theworld.com] a short write-up of the idea.
If you also make a lunar power grid, you can have stations at both poles so there are no dark periods. Note that a redundant grid (say 6-10 wires from pole to pole) could be done with superconducting wire - just enable the lines that are on the dark side, since they'll be cold enough to superconduct. No need for really exotic materials.
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Energy is cheap, solar panels would be fine.
The sun is twice as bright on the moon since there is no atmosphere.
But the night lasts for two weeks. So you may have to run the mines in cycles: two weeks on, two weeks off.
The other problem with solar panels is keeping them cool. The vacuum of space doesn't carry away the heat.
Daytime temps hit 120 C (250 Freedom degrees). The high temperature reduces the efficiency of the panels and shortens their life.
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Liquid water on the moon (Score:3)
Umm good luck (Score:2)
Robotics sucks so badly that we can't even do automated mining and brick making on Earth, how the hell are we close to doing it on the moon on an industrial scale? I for one would be amazed.
Re:Umm good luck (Score:4, Insightful)
On earth, the robots have to compete with cheap and plentiful human labor.
On the moon, they do not.
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#AllLunariansMatter
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Why does a moon rock ... (Score:3, Funny)
... taste better than an earth rock?
Because it's a little meteor (meatier)!
Address all complaints to the Monsanto Corporation.
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can we address the complaints to the "not my joke" department?
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and yes - I know its from Futurama :)
fuck the tinkerers get a real job (Score:2)
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The nitrogen won't be consumed, though. Setting aside the (hopefully) small amount of nitrogen you'd lose to leakage, if you bring up enough to fill your habitat, it should last you a good long while.
I can't find a good, non-paywalled source on the concentration, but aren't there also noble gases stored in lunar regolith? If it's feasible to extract it could be a substitute for Nitrogen. Helium is used in diving bells where the durations and pressures mean that both nitrogen and oxygen would be harmful, so
More deluded bollocks (Score:3)
Hardly (Score:2)
"A British firm has won a European Space Agency contract to develop the technology to turn moon dust and rocks into oxygen, "
After a no-deal-Brexit, it will be revoked.
Re: Hardly (Score:3)
I can see it now (Score:2)
Artemis (novel) already mentioned this process (Score:1)
just bring us the rock (Score:1)
Haha. Um, first they need to get the moon rocks?