Moon's oxygen could be enough to sustain about 8 billion people. As such, NASA through Australia's rover mission is planning to extract it from the lunar surface.
The full moon is seen in Buenos Aires on October 20, 2021.
Moon's Oxygen Could Sustain 8 Billion People
According to the report by Futurism, a soil researcher from the Southern Cross University, John Grant revealed the amount of soil in the Moon.
The soil researcher further claimed that the soil on the Moon could not only sustain billions of people, but it could last for a long time as well, up to 100,000 years.
That said, the Moon could provide oxygen for multiple generations to come if the study by Grant is to be believed.
Although the Moon is home to expansive amounts of oxygen that could even sustain a civilization of humankind, it's only found on its rocky soil.
And, of course, humans could not breathe through the lunar rocks, which is known as the "regolith."
As per the news story of WIONews, about 45 percent of the regolith of the Moon consists of oxygen.
Not to mention that the rocky soil is also easily available on the Moon. Thus, oxygen is widely available on the lunar surface.
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NASA, Australia's Rover Plans to Extract it
With all that said, it turns out that NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is not missing the opportunity that lies ahead to humankind.
In fact, NASA has already inked a contract with the Australian Space Agency as part of the former's Artemis program, which seeks to collect lunar rocks.
NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts acknowledge the audience after their graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, on January 10, 2020. - The 13 astronauts, 11 from NASA and 2 from CSA, are the first candidates to graduate under the Artemis program and will become eligible for spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and ultimately, missions to Mars, according to NASA.
The press release of NASA for the joint lunar mission with Australia, which is the first-ever moon mission of the latter, said that part of it is an "attempt to extract oxygen from lunar regolith."
Grant further revealed that the process of extraction will be utilizing a known tech called electrolysis, which is already being used to produce a widely used material on Earth, aluminum.
However, in the production of aluminum, the process is separating oxygen from aluminum oxide to manufacture such material. So, it really meant to remove oxygen here on Earth, not to extract it.
On the other hand, miles away from Earth, electrolysis will be used to specifically harvest oxygen from the Moon's rocks.
Grant further noted that the said tech requires a high level of energy. So, to make the extraction of much more sustainable, clean energy sources like solar should be utilized.
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Written by Teejay Boris
