Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, May 3 (Xinhua)-- NASA researchers recently conducted an experiment in a vacuum that successfully separated oxygen from simulated lunar soil using a laser and a special reactor. This technology is of great significance for NASA's Artemis Project (Artemis program) and could provide a sustainable source of oxygen for the future establishment of long-term settlements on the moon.

The experiment was carried out by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) carbothermal reduction demonstration (CaRD) team, who used JSC's "Dirty" vacuum chamber to simulate lunar conditions. In this spherical vacuum chamber 15 feet in diameter, the researchers used a high-power laser to simulate concentrated sunlight, heating and melting the simulated lunar soil (regolith), the powdered lunar soil. This process is called carbothermal reduction. This method has been done before, but not in a vacuum.

Thanks to a new carbothermal reactor developed by Siera Space (Sierra Space) for NASA, researchers were able to maintain constant pressure inside the reactor during vacuum chamber tests to prevent gas escape, while allowing consumed lunar soil material to enter and exit the reaction area. During the melting process, a mass spectrometer (MSolo), which watches the moon's movements, detected the release of carbon monoxide from the lunar soil bombarded by lasers, from which oxygen can be further separated.

"this technology has the potential to generate several times its own weight of oxygen on the lunar surface each year, which will enable humans to continue to live and develop the economy on the moon," Aaron Paz, a senior engineer at NASA Johnson Space Center, said in a recent NASA statement.

"our team has proved that the CaRD reactor can operate on the lunar surface and extract oxygen successfully," said Anastasia Ford, an NASA engineer and director of CaRD testing. " This successful test brings the technology to level 6 on the NASA Technical Readiness Standard scale, which means that the technology is ready for practical use in space and meets the requirements of the NASA Artemis mission.

Artemis 3 will be the first mission to send astronauts to the surface of the moon in more than 50 years, and for subsequent missions, NASA plans to use long-term residence on the moon as a springboard to send humans to Mars.

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