Moon’s surface has enough oxygen to sustain 800 crore humans for 1 lakh years – but there’s a catch

Posted on by Ramesh Siyag
नासा [सार्वजनिक डोमेन]

अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण में प्रगति के साथ-साथ, हमने हाल ही में प्रौद्योगिकियों में निवेश किए गए बहुत समय और धन को देखा है जो प्रभावी अंतरिक्ष संसाधन उपयोग की अनुमति दे सकते हैं । और इन प्रयासों में सबसे आगे चंद्रमा परऑक्सीजन का उत्पादन करने का सबसे अच्छा तरीकाखोजने पर एक लेजर-तेज फोकस रहा है ।

अक्टूबर में, ऑस्ट्रेलियाई अंतरिक्ष एजेंसी और नासा नेआर्टेमिस कार्यक्रम के तहत चंद्रमा पर ऑस्ट्रेलियाई निर्मित रोवर भेजने के लिए एक समझौते पर हस्ताक्षर किए , जिसका लक्ष्य चंद्र चट्टानों को इकट्ठा करना था जो अंततः चंद्रमा पर सांस लेने योग्य ऑक्सीजन प्रदान कर सके।विज्ञापनहालांकि चंद्रमा का एक वातावरण है, लेकिन यह बहुत पतला है और ज्यादातर हाइड्रोजन, नियॉन और आर्गन से बना है। यह उस तरह का गैसीय मिश्रण नहीं है जो मनुष्यों जैसे ऑक्सीजन पर निर्भर स्तनधारियों को बनाए रख सके।उस ने कहा, वास्तव में चंद्रमा पर भरपूर ऑक्सीजन है। यह सिर्फ गैसीय रूप में नहीं है। इसके बजाय, यह रेगोलिथ के अंदर फंस गया है – चट्टान की परत और महीन धूल जो चंद्रमा की सतह को ढकती है। अगर हम रेजोलिथ से ऑक्सीजन निकाल सकें, तो क्या यह चंद्रमा पर मानव जीवन का समर्थन करने के लिए पर्याप्त होगा?ऑक्सीजन की चौड़ाईऑक्सीजन हमारे आसपास की जमीन में कई खनिजों में पाई जा सकती है। और चंद्रमा ज्यादातर उन्हीं चट्टानों से बना है जो आप पृथ्वी पर पाएंगे (हालाँकि उल्काओं से थोड़ी अधिक मात्रा में सामग्री के साथ)।विज्ञापनसिलिका, एल्यूमीनियम और लौह और मैग्नीशियम ऑक्साइड जैसे खनिज चंद्रमा के परिदृश्य पर हावी हैं। इन सभी खनिजों में ऑक्सीजन होता है, लेकिन इस रूप में नहीं कि हमारे फेफड़े पहुंच सकें।

On the Moon, these minerals exist in a few different forms including hard rock, dust, gravel and stones covering the surface. This material has resulted from the impacts of meteorites crashing into the lunar surface over countless millennia.

Some people call the Moon’s surface layer lunar “soil”, but as a soil scientist, I am hesitant to use this term. Soil as we know it is pretty magical stuff that only occurs on Earth. It has been created by a vast array of organisms working on the soil’s parent material – regolith, derived from hard rock – over lakhs of years.Advertisement

The result is a matrix of minerals that were not present in the original rocks. Earth’s soil is imbued with remarkable physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Meanwhile, the materials on the Moon’s surface is basically regolith in its original, untouched form.

Extracting oxygen

The Moon’s regolith is made up ofapproximately 45% oxygen. But that oxygen is tightly bound into the minerals mentioned above. In order to break apart those strong bonds, we need to put in energy.

You might be familiar with this if you know about electrolysis. On Earth, this process is commonly used in manufacturing, such as to produce aluminium. An electrical current is passed through a liquid form of aluminium oxide (commonly called alumina) via electrodes, to separate the aluminium from the oxygen.

In this case, oxygen is produced as a byproduct. On the Moon, the oxygen would be the main product and the aluminium (or other metal) extracted would be a potentially useful byproduct.

It is a pretty straightforward process, but there is a catch: it is very energy hungry. To be sustainable, it would need to be supported by solar energy or other energy sources available on the Moon.

Extracting oxygen from regolith would also require substantial industrial equipment. We would need to first convert solid metal oxide into liquid form, either by applying heat, or heat combined with solvents or electrolytes. We have the technology to do this on Earth, but moving this apparatus to the Moon – and generating enough energy to run it – will be a mighty challenge.Advertisement

Earlier this year, Belgium-based startup Space Applications Services announced it was building three experimental reactors to improve the process of making oxygen via electrolysis. They expect to send the technology to the Moon by 2025 as part of the European Space Agency’s in-situ resource utilisation mission.

Quantity of oxygen

That said, when we do manage to pull it off, how much oxygen might the Moon actually deliver? Well, quite a lot as it turns out.

If we ignore oxygen tied up in the Moon’s deeper hard rock material – and just consider regolith which is easily accessible on the surface – we can come up with some estimates.Advertisement

Each cubic metre of lunar regolith contains 1.4 tonnes of minerals on average, including about 630 kilograms of oxygen. NASA says humans need to breathe about 800 grams of oxygen a day to survive. So 630 kg oxygen would keep a person alive for about two years (or just over).

Now let us assume the average depth of regolith on the Moon is about ten metres, and that we can extract all of the oxygen from this. That means the top ten metres of the Moon’s surface would provide enough oxygen to support all 800 crore people on Earth for somewhere around 1 lakh years.

This would also depend on how effectively we managed to extract and use the oxygen. Regardless, this figure is pretty amazing!Advertisement

Having said that, we do have it pretty good here on Earth. And we should do everything we can to protect the blue planet – and its soil in particular – which continues to support all terrestrial life without us even trying.

अगर आपको इसमें दी गई जानकारी सही लगी हों तो आप अपने मित्रों के साथ भी जरूर सेयर करे । ये हमारी आपसे विनती है।

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