Friday, 12 November 2021 – 14:22 WIB
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VIVA – The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Australian Space Agency (ARSE) signed an agreement last October to send an Australian-made rover to Australia. Month under the Artemis Program. Its purpose is to collect and identify oxygen on rocks on the Moon.
The atmosphere on the Moon is very thin and consists mostly of hydrogen, neon, and argon. This is not the kind of gas mixture that can sustain oxygen-dependent mammals like humans.
That said, there is actually a lot of oxygen on the Moon, just not in gaseous form. But instead, trapped inside the regolith, which is a layer of rock and fine dust that covers the surface of the Moon.
The lunar regolith is made up of about 45 percent oxygen. However, this oxygen is tightly bound to minerals such as silica, aluminum, iron, and magnesium. To break that strong bond, it is necessary to put energy in.
Of Earth, this process is commonly used in manufacturing such as to produce aluminum. An electric current is passed through the alumina or through electrodes to separate the aluminum from the oxygen.
In this case oxygen is produced as a by-product. On the Moon, oxygen will be the main product and the extracted aluminum (or other metal) will be a useful byproduct.
This is a fairly easy process but there is one thing that is interesting. It’s very energy hungry. To be sustainable, it needs to be supported by solar energy or other energy sources available on the moon, as quoted VIVA Tekno from the page Science Alert, Friday, November 12, 2021.
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