NASA tests method to extract oxygen from simulated lunar soil

NASA’s Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) team has successfully tested a method to extract oxygen from simulated lunar soil using concentrated sunlight, marking a significant advancement for the Artemis program. This process, driven solely by solar energy, involves heating lunar regolith simulant in a specialized reactor to trigger a chemical reaction that releases oxygen and produces carbon monoxide as a byproduct. Since lunar soil is nearly half oxygen by mass, trapped within metal oxides, this technique effectively “breaks the bonds” to harvest oxygen directly on the Moon, reducing the need to transport heavy life-support supplies from Earth. This achievement supports NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) strategy, which aims to enable astronauts to live off local materials on the Moon and Mars by producing air, water, and fuel on-site. The technology not only promises to lower the cost and increase the sustainability of long-term lunar missions but also has potential applications on Mars, where similar hardware could convert the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere into