Carbon Reduction of Lunar Regolith for Oxygen Production

The utilization of extraterrestrial resources will become a key element in the exploration of the Moon and Mars. The ability to locally make propellants, life support consumables, and fuel cell reagents will significantly reduce mission cost by reducing launch mass, and reduce risk through reduced dependence on Earth‐supplied materials. The presence of water/hydrogen on the Moon will significantly impact the design of space exploration hardware and systems, but the form and concentration of these resources are unknown. The goal of the first robotic lunar lander mission in 2009/2010 will likely be to determine what is in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar poles. To meet this goal, the NASA/JSC‐led RESOLVE project will develop and integrate an experiment package that can perform the following objectives: (1) obtain “ground truth” data for resources at lunar pole; (2) obtain bulk and fine‐grained regolith characteristic and environment data; (3) extract and collect volatiles from regolith; (4) produce oxygen from regolith; and (5) perform a hydrogen/water resource processing demonstration after it has been evolved and collected. ORBITEC, an industry partner in the RESOLVE project, is developing a small chemical reactor that will produce oxygen from the lunar regolith using the carbothermal reduction process. The carbothermal reduction process uses a carbonaceous source (such as methane gas) at high temperatures (∼1625 °C) to reduce ilmenite and silicates present in the lunar regolith.