With ambitious lunar exploration plans, China and Roscosmos have jointly announced their intention to build an International Lunar Research Station (ILRSP). This initiative, focused on establishing a permanent base on the Moon’s southern pole, aims to address significant challenges in space exploration and resource utilization. The planned station will offer vital research insights into lunar resources, and it’s poised to compete with NASA’s Artemis program.
Building a lunar base
The ILRSP’s first surface elements are set to be delivered by 2030, with full operational capabilities expected by 2040. This station is designed to serve as a long-term research outpost, primarily in the southern polar region of the Moon, where NASA also intends to build its own lunar base as part of the Artemis missions.
While both projects promise groundbreaking research, they will face considerable logistical challenges. Specifically, the delivery of supplies to the Moon, a process that takes at least three days, will need to be managed carefully. Unlike the International Space Station, which is only hours away from Earth, the Moon’s vast distance requires innovative approaches to supply and resource management.
In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and water production
A critical solution to these logistical challenges lies in In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), a process that aims to extract and process resources directly from the lunar environment. As part of ongoing efforts, a research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has discovered an innovative method to produce large quantities of water from lunar hydrogen.
Led by Professor Wang Junqiang, the team from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) recently published their findings in The Innovation. Their groundbreaking research shows how hydrogen, naturally present in the Moon’s environment, can be combined with lunar regolith to produce water in vast quantities.
Water on the Moon: Past discoveries
Water has been a confirmed component of the lunar environment since the Apollo missions returned rock and soil samples for analysis. Subsequent robotic missions, including China’s Chang’e-5, have further validated the presence of water, mostly in the form of hydroxyl (OH) due to solar wind interactions with the Moon’s regolith.
Additionally, permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) near the lunar poles contain water ice, although this is mixed with rocky material, making extraction difficult. Lunar regolith itself contains only trace amounts of hydroxyl that can be converted into water, ranging from 0.0001% to 0.02%.
Discovering lunar ilmenite’s potential
Professor Wang’s team identified ilmenite (FeTiO3), a mineral composed of titanium and iron oxide, as a key element in producing water on the Moon. Due to its unique lattice structure with sub-nanometer tunnels, ilmenite is highly effective in trapping hydrogen, which can then be used in water production.
Through heating lunar regolith at temperatures above 1,200 K (approximately 930°C or 1,700°F) using concave mirrors, the team discovered that hydrogen reacts with iron oxide, resulting in the release of water vapor.
Water production process
The chemical reaction is expressed as:
FeO/Fe2O3 + H → Fe + H2O
This process yields water vapor at a rate of 51 to 76 mg per gram of lunar regolith. In practical terms, this could produce around 50 liters (13.2 gallons) of water per ton of processed regolith, which is sufficient to support approximately 50 people daily. The amount of water produced is approximately 10,000 times greater than the natural hydroxyl and H2O content on the Moon.
Additional benefits and applications
Beyond providing potable water, this method could be crucial for future lunar settlers by supporting agricultural endeavors on the Moon. This would help reduce reliance on Earth for food supplies, facilitating self-sustaining colonies. The same process could also be adapted for separating hydrogen and oxygen from regolith, potentially providing rocket fuel (liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen) or maintaining breathable oxygen supplies for astronauts.
Furthermore, this technique is highly efficient, powered almost entirely by concentrated sunlight, which can be harnessed by solar panels. This reliance on solar energy is particularly important for lunar missions, as it reduces the need for bulky and costly energy storage systems.
Challenges and solutions
However, this method faces limitations. It is only viable during the lunar day in the southern polar region, where sunlight is available for two weeks at a time. This could lead to periods of inactivity during the two-week lunar night.
Experts suggest that this issue can be mitigated by positioning processing facilities outside the polar regions or deploying strategically placed solar mirrors or satellites to direct sunlight to the southern pole during the night.
