The Artemis program plans to put people on the Moon for the very first time given that NASAs Apollo objectives. Artemis has a bigger scope than just landing people there, setting up some science experiments, collecting Moon rocks, playing a little golf, then leaving. The intent is to establish a consistent existence.
That will require resources, and among those crucial resources is oxygen.
Dr. Peter A. Curreri has been a NASA researcher for years and has actually been a strong advocate of human spaceflight. Since 2021, Curreris been the Chief Science Officer for Lunar Resources, Inc. Lunar Resources is proposing a novel principle for Artemis: an oxygen pipeline.
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An ongoing human presence on Mars needs a few things to prosper, and the structure of success is built on water and oxygen. The lunar south pole includes vast quantities of prehistoric water ice, frozen solid in the regions craters where sunshine never reaches it. That ice can be melted and separated into hydrogen and oxygen.
Image revealing the circulation of surface ice at the Moons south pole (left) and north pole (right), spotted by NASAs Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument. Credits: NASA
Everyone involved in lunar science knows this, and the established idea is that the ice would be processed in situ, and oxygen would be put in cryogenic pressure vessels called dewars and transported to wherever it was needed. Given that the equatorial areas have the most sunlight and the most solar energy, thats likely where lunar bases will be developed.
But instead of bottling oxygen and carrying it, which might get complicated, Lunar Resources has another concept. Construct an oxygen pipeline from the ice deposits at the south pole or from where oxygen is being drawn out from the regolith to facilities elsewhere on the Moon. That idea has actually captured NASAs attention, and the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (LSPOP) is a Phase One project at NIAC, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept program.
” We propose the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (L-SPoP), a gaseous oxygen pipeline at the Moons South Pole,” Curreri composes in a press release describing the concept. “A lunar pipeline has never ever been pursued and will transform lunar surface area operations for the Artemis program and minimize expense and danger!”
Oxygen is important. We require it in human environments, in automobiles, and in any life-support systems anywhere on the Moon. We also need it as an oxidant for rocket fuel. Ferrying large amounts of oxygen southern pole to the equator could be cumbersome and would need devoted cars, tanks, and facilities. A pipeline would eliminate cars and other resources, including human work hours, from the procedure.
The effort to comprehend, extract, and use lunar oxygen includes different objectives and automobiles. This image is an artists concept of the completed design of NASAs Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. VIPER will get a close-up view of the area and concentration of ice and other resources at the Moons South Pole, bringing us a significant action better to NASAs ultimate objective of a long-lasting presence on the Moon– making it possible to eventually check out Mars and beyond. Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter
” The process of moving this oxygen on rovers is more energy extensive than the extraction procedure and is believed to be the MOST costly element in acquiring in-situ oxygen for use on the Moon considering the cross countries a resource extraction area will be from a human habitat or liquification plant,” Curreri composes.
NASA has currently invested considerable financing in oxygen and water extraction. Some efforts show that we could get enough oxygen from the regolith. Water can just come from the ice at the poles, and it makes sense to get oxygen from there considering that some of the water will require to be split to get hydrogen anyhow.
Not on the Moon. For a lunar oxygen pipeline, leaks do not matter. The oxygen just gets away.
Lunar Resources will explore various concepts for its lunar pipeline idea, but theyre starting with a 5 km pipeline. “Our beginning idea is for a 5 km pipeline to transport oxygen gas from an oxygen production source, for instance, our molten regolith electrolysis (MRE) extraction website or any other source, to an oxygen storage/liquification plant near a lunar base,” Curreri describes.
LSPOP would be produced in sectors on the Moons surface area and after that joined together in a 5 km length. The pipeline would likely be made from aluminum, which is plentiful on the Moons surface, particularly at the south pole. “Other in-situ metals which will likewise be examined for factor to consider include iron and magnesium,” Curreri writes.
Finding and drawing out oxygen from lunar ice will include various missions as part of the effort. In this artists illustration, NASAs Lunar Flashlights lasers are scanning a shaded lunar crater for the existence of ice. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).
The pipeline would be long-lived, repairable, and evolvable. It would also be less expensive than other methods, though lunar production would still require some assistance from Earth.
Lunar Resources says the pipeline could be built robotically from metals from the lunar regolith, though some very little usage of Earth products would still be needed. It might also be repaired robotically. NASA jobs that Artemis will need 10,000 kg of oxygen per year initially, and the LSPOP can reach deliver that with a circulation rate of about 2kg/hour. It requires very little power over its lifetime, would be extremely dependable, and its lifetime in the lunar environment would surpass 10 years.
The Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline is a Phase One choice in the NIAC Program. That implies NASA will fund a 9-month-long study for the idea. It supplies an opportunity to explore the overall practicality and advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the LSPOP. After Phase One ends, Lunar Resources can look for Phase Two funding, which develops ideas for as much as 2 years.
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Lunar Resources is proposing a novel idea for Artemis: an oxygen pipeline.
Construct an oxygen pipeline from the ice deposits at the south pole or from where oxygen is being drawn out from the regolith to facilities elsewhere on the Moon. That concept has captured NASAs attention, and the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (LSPOP) is a Phase One task at NIAC, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept program.
For a lunar oxygen pipeline, leakages dont matter. The Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline is a Phase One selection in the NIAC Program.