Although the day humans will live and work on the moon is still in the uncertain future, NASA is actively planning how to get us there.

The agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is seeking information on methods to extract oxygen from lunar dust to help one day provide the resources necessary for a sustained human presence on the Moon. In theory, this demand would allow industry and researchers to provide detailed information on technologies that would allow future lunar inhabitants to produce, capture and store breathable oxygen from lunar soil. NASA hopes to use the information collected to develop a technology demonstration.

The concept of using materials found on other bodies to create vital resources rather than transporting them from Earth is known as in situ resource utilization, or ISRU. “The deployment of resources in situ is essential to ensuring a long-term presence away from Earth. Just as we need consumables and infrastructure to live and work on our own planet, we will need similar support systems on the Moon so that crews and robots can operate safely and efficiently.” .” said Prasun Desai, NASA’s STMD Deputy Administrator, in a statement requesting information, or RFI.

To support this concept, NASA pointed to the Perseverance Mars rover’s MOXIE experiment, which repeatedly converts carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into breathable oxygen. Although MOXIE only produces about 0.2 ounces (6 grams) (the equivalent of a small tree on Earth), preliminary testing with all of it has proven to be the first time a human device has produced oxygen on another world.

NASA believes that this technology will provide a great advantage for astronauts who will spend time on the Moon in the future within the scope of the Artemis program. Producing oxygen on the Moon means astronauts need to carry less oxygen, allowing them to save valuable weight and stay away from Earth for longer missions.

But before astronauts try to produce their own oxygen, NASA plans to demonstrate the technology to do so in a demonstration called Lunar Infrastructure Key Technologies (LIFT-1).

Harnessing in situ resources by converting readily available materials from other worlds into resources such as oxygen, water, and metals is one of the areas of research that NASA supports through its Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative. NASA is conducting its own research and collaborating with outside researchers to study life on the Moon, looking at how to build lunar infrastructure, how to power that infrastructure, and how to protect that infrastructure from the lunar elements. LIFT-1 may also include a demonstration of these technologies. Source