Scientists extracted water and oxygen from moon dust using sunlight. Could it work on the lunar surface?

> Soil excavated from the moon could be used to produce oxygen and methane, which could be used by lunar settlers for breathing and for rocket fuel. This is the conclusion of a team of scientists from China who have found a **one-step method** of doing all this.

> Studies have indicated that it would cost **$83,000 to transport just one gallon of water** from Earth to the moon, and yet each astronaut would be expected to drink 4 gallons of water per day. Extracting the water from the moon for drinking is relatively easy and there are numerous technologies that describe how this can be done, including heating the regolith by focusing sunlight onto it. However, the Chinese team has been able to take this one step further. “What’s novel here is the use of lunar soil as a catalyst to crack carbon dioxide molecules and combine them with extracted water to produce methane,” Philip Metzger, a planetary physicist from the University of Central Florida.

> The water-bearing **ilmenite** is also a useful catalyst for reacting the water with carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and methane, and the Chinese team have developed a one-step process for doing so. First, they heat the regolith to 392 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) by focusing sunlight to release the water inside. Then, carbon dioxide such as that which could be breathed out by astronauts is added to the mix, causing the ilmenite to catalyze the reaction between the extracted water and the carbon dioxide. Researchers tested this process, known as photothermal catalysis, in the laboratory using a simulant based on samples of lunar regolith returned to Earth by China’s Chang’e 5 mission.

> While previous technologies have also been able to accomplish this, they required more steps and more machinery, and used a catalyst that would have to be transported up from Earth. This, the research team believe, makes their process **more efficient and less expensive than the alternatives.**