{"id":3374,"date":"2022-07-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/singularityumexicosummit.com\/?p=3374"},"modified":"2022-07-19T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T15:00:00","slug":"the-moons-surface-has-enough-oxygen-to-sustain-8-billion-people-for-100000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/the-moons-surface-has-enough-oxygen-to-sustain-8-billion-people-for-100000-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moon\u2019s Surface Has Enough Oxygen to Sustain 8 Billion People for 100,000 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alongside advances in space exploration<\/a>, we\u2019ve recently seen much time and money invested into technologies that could allow effective space resource utilization<\/a>. And at the forefront of these efforts has been a laser-sharp focus on finding the best way to produce oxygen<\/a> on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the Australian Space Agency and NASA signed a deal<\/a> to send an Australian-made rover to the moon under the Artemis program, with a goal to collect lunar rocks that could ultimately provide breathable oxygen on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the moon does have an atmosphere, it\u2019s very thin and composed mostly of hydrogen, neon, and argon. It\u2019s not the sort of gaseous mixture that could sustain oxygen-dependent mammals such as humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there is actually plenty of oxygen on the moon. It just isn\u2019t in a gaseous form. Instead it\u2019s trapped inside regolith\u2014the layer of rock and fine dust that covers the moon\u2019s surface. If we could extract oxygen from regolith, would it be enough to support human life on the moon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Breadth of Oxygen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Oxygen can be found in many of the minerals in the ground around us. And the moon is mostly made of the same rocks you\u2019ll find on Earth (although with a slightly greater amount of material that came from meteors).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minerals such as silica, aluminum, and iron and magnesium oxides dominate the moon\u2019s landscape. All of these minerals contain oxygen, but not in a form our lungs can access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the moon these minerals exist in a few different forms including hard rock, dust, gravel, and stones covering the surface. This material is the result of impacts of meteorites crashing into the lunar surface over countless millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people call the moon\u2019s surface layer lunar \u201csoil,\u201d but as a soil scientist I\u2019m hesitant to use this term. Soil as we know it is pretty magical stuff that only occurs on Earth. It has been created by a vast array of organisms working on the soil\u2019s parent material\u2014regolith, derived from hard rock\u2014over millions of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a matrix of minerals which were not present in the original rocks. Earth\u2019s soil is imbued with remarkable physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Meanwhile, the materials on the moon\u2019s surface are basically regolith in its original, untouched form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Substance Goes In, Two Come Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The moon\u2019s regolith is made up of<\/a> approximately 45 percent oxygen<\/a>. But that oxygen is tightly bound into the minerals mentioned above. In order to break apart those strong bonds, we need to put in energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be familiar with this if you know about electrolysis. On Earth this process is commonly used in manufacturing, such as to produce aluminum. An electrical current is passed through a liquid form of aluminum oxide (commonly called alumina) via electrodes, to separate the aluminum from the oxygen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the oxygen is produced as a byproduct. On the moon, the oxygen would be the main product, and the aluminum (or other metal) extracted would be a potentially useful byproduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a pretty straightforward process, but there is a catch: it\u2019s very energy hungry. To be sustainable, it would need to be supported by solar energy or other energy sources available on the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extracting oxygen from regolith would also require substantial industrial equipment. We\u2019d need to first convert solid metal oxide into liquid form, either by applying heat, or heat combined with solvents or electrolytes. We have the technology<\/a> to do this on Earth, but moving this apparatus to the Moon\u2014and generating enough energy to run it\u2014will be a mighty challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Belgium-based startup Space Applications Services announced it was building three experimental reactors to improve the process of making oxygen via electrolysis<\/a>. They expect to send the technology to the Moon by 2025 as part of the European Space Agency\u2019s in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Much Oxygen Could the Moon Provide?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That said, when we do manage to pull it off, how much oxygen might the Moon actually deliver? Well, quite a lot as it turns out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we ignore oxygen tied up in the Moon\u2019s deeper hard rock material\u2014and just consider regolith which is easily accessible on the surface\u2014we can come up with some estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each cubic meter of lunar regolith contains 1.4 tons of minerals on average, including about 630 kilograms of oxygen. NASA says humans need to breathe about 800 grams<\/a> of oxygen a day to survive. So 630 kilograms of oxygen would keep a person alive for about two years (or just over).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s assume the average depth of regolith on the Moon is about ten meters<\/a>, and that we can extract all of the oxygen from this. That means the top ten meters of the Moon\u2019s surface would provide enough oxygen to support all eight billion people on Earth for somewhere around 100,000 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would also depend on how effectively we managed to extract and use the oxygen. Regardless, this figure is pretty amazing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, we do have it pretty good here on Earth. And we should do everything we can to protect the blue planet\u2014and its soil in particular\u2014which continues to support all terrestrial life without us even trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0under a Creative Commons license. Read the\u00a0original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image Credit:\u00a0NASA<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author:<\/strong>
John Grant is a lecturer in soil science at Southern Cross University. He has a doctorate in science looking at how the physical and chemical properties of soil impact tree growth. He has extensive background in soils research in private and public institutions and is a certified practicing soil scientist stage 3 (CPSS 3). Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original article<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alongside advances in space exploration, we\u2019ve recently seen much time and money invested into technologies that could allow effective space resource utilization. And at the forefront of these efforts has been a laser-sharp focus on finding the best way to produce oxygen on the moon. In October, the Australian Space Agency and NASA signed a deal to send an Australian-made rover […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[170,20,126,171,88,21],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articulos-ingles","tag-challenge","tag-future","tag-humanity","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-space"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/moon-earth-atmosphere-iss-1.jpeg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/11711533-1673157178559-89a95be153719-4-scaled.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/singularityumexico.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/the-feedback-loop-by-singularity","embedCode":"

The Moon\u2019s Surface Has Enough Oxygen to Sustain 8 Billion People for 100,000 Years<\/a><\/blockquote>