Prize for Extracting Oxygen from Moon Dust |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Saturday, 28 May 2005 21:12 |
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NASA has announced that it will give $250,000 to the first team that can extract at least 5 kilograms of breathable oxygen from simulated lunar dust, using an extractor weighing less than 25 kilograms. The ability to extract oxygen from lunar dust would make a lunar base less reliant on oxygen deliveries from Earth.
The Moon Regolith Oxygen Challenge was announced on May 19, 2005 and closes on June 1, 2008. The simulated lunar dirt being used in the contest, called JSC-1, comes from a basaltic ash deposit near Flagstaff, Arizona. It consists mainly of oxides of silicon, iron, calcium and magnesium. It has trace elements and particle sizes similar to those found in the soil at the landing site of Apollo 14.
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