The Moon is composed of a variety of oxygen-bearing minerals, providing a virtually unlimited quantity of raw material that can be processed to produce oxygen. One attractive method to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith is the carbothermal reduction process. This paper discusses recent development work conducted through the PILOT project under the NASA OPTIMA program. The OPTIMA test program utilizes a modular technology suite of ISRU excavation, oxygen extraction, oxygen storage, and oxygen distribution hardware sized to be consistent with the draft Constellation requirements for oxygen extraction from the regolith to support the early lunar outpost (1 MT O2/year).


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    Title :

    Oxygen Production via Carbothermal Reduction of Lunar Regolith


    Additional title:

    Sae Int. J. Aerosp


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Conference On Environmental Systems ; 2009


    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2009-07-12


    Size :

    6 pages




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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