Chinese scientists have developed a new method of water extraction from lunar soil, marking a significant step towards the creation of a research base on the moon. This innovative method involves extracting hydrogen and oxygen from lunar soil at very high temperatures.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) stated that this new method is considered to be “very practical.” In the past, efforts in lunar exploration have mainly focused on the search for natural water resources. However, researchers from the Institute of Materials Technology in Ningbo, the Institute of Physics of CAS, and other scientific institutions proposed this new methodology after studying lunar soil samples brought back to Earth by China’s Chang’e-5 mission in 2020.
It was discovered that certain minerals in lunar soil, particularly Ilmenite, have accumulated a significant amount of hydrogen over billions of years of exposure to solar wind. When heated, the hydrogen reacts chemically with iron oxides in the minerals, resulting in the production of water, iron, and ceramic glass.
By further increasing the temperature to over 1000 degrees Celsius, the lunar soil melts, releasing water in the form of steam. Research has shown that 1 gram of lunar soil can yield between 51 to 76 milligrams of water, equivalent to around 50 liters of water from one ton of soil – enough to provide drinking water for 50 people for a day.
Based on these findings, the team proposed a method of melting lunar soil using concentrated sunlight through concave mirrors. The iron extracted from this process can be utilized for manufacturing electronic equipment on the moon, while molten lunar soil could serve as a building material for the base.
However, researchers caution that future Chang’e missions will need to conduct further studies to evaluate the practical application of this method. They believe that this method could lay the foundation for designing future lunar research stations and space stations. The study detailing this breakthrough was published in The Innovation, a leading multidisciplinary scientific journal.
The quest for water on the moon has been a longstanding priority for scientists. It is hypothesized that ice may be present at the lunar poles and in areas of constant shadow. While small amounts of water have previously been found in some lunar soil minerals, its scarcity poses challenges for extraction and utilization.
In the coming years, a series of missions will continue the search for water on the moon, including Russia’s Luna-26 orbital spacecraft and China’s planned Chang’e-7 mission slated for around 2026, which aims to land at the lunar South Pole. In addition to the benefits for lunar missions, lunar water resources could potentially serve