[Space]NASA premia chi riesce a produrre ossigeno dal suolo lunare

[Teox82]

NASA is willing to pay $250,000 to the first person or team that turns lunar soil into breathable oxygen, a technology intended to revive the country's long-dormant lunar exploration program. "Oxygen extraction technologies will be critical for both robotic and human missions to the moon," said former astronaut Sam Durrance, who now heads the Florida Space Research Institute, which is co-sponsoring the competition. The contest, announced Friday, is the latest in NASA's Centennial Challenges program, which is designed to lure private industry and research groups into helping NASA find alternative and lower-cost technologies for moon and Mars exploration. The competition is based on the successful Ansari X Prize, which last year award $10 million to the developers of SpaceShipOne for building and flying the world's first private spaceship. The contest requires contenders to use a simulated lunar regolith, which is the loose soil found on the moon's surface, to extract at least five kilograms of oxygen within eight hours. Although several methods to extract oxygen from lunar soil already have been developed, none have produced the quantity of oxygen required to win the prize.

Oxygen is the most abundant element in lunar soil, comprising about 45 percent of the lunar regolith by weight.

The oxygen, however, is bound in a wide variety of minerals, such as ilmenite, which is a mix of iron, titanium and oxygen. The oxygen molecules can be released through chemical reactions and heating, among other methods.

NASA is looking at ways to produce large amounts of oxygen on the lunar surface to support a manned base and to fuel vehicles that will be designed to land and launch from the moon.

The program is part of a renewed exploration initiative for NASA to return astronauts to the moon and lay the foundation for journeys to Mars and other locations.

dsc.discovery.com