lunar oxygen made available..?

[Landon Caeli]

I think this is a major advantage toward not only making the moon habitable for astronauts, but even for potential Mars colonies.

Approximately 45% of the weight of regolith is oxygen, but it is bonded to materials such as iron and titanium. To utilize both the oxygen and the materials it’s bonded to they must be separated. And a British company, with support from the European Space Agency, has begun testing a technique to judge its potential effectiveness on the moon.

Figuring Out How To Breathe the Moon's Regolith - Universe Today

 

[Brightmoon]

Oxygen is rather common in space and is also Bound chemically in rock. That’s interesting if they can get it to work efficiently. The lower gravity is going to be a bigger problem IMHO

 

[Landon Caeli]

Oxygen is rather common in space and is also Bound chemically in rock. That’s interesting if they can get it to work efficiently. The lower gravity is going to be a bigger problem IMHO

Mars is slightly better in the gravity dapartment...

 

[Subduction Zone]

Oxygen is rather common in space and is also Bound chemically in rock. That’s interesting if they can get it to work efficiently. The lower gravity is going to be a bigger problem IMHO

If you are thinking of the oxygen flying out into space due to low gravity that is not much of a problem. The escape velocity from the surface of the Moon is about seven times the average velocity of oxygen at room temperature. It is the lack of a magnetic field that cost the Moon what little atmosphere that it had.

 

[Brightmoon]

Not really what I meant sorry for the confusion. Oxygen molecules are rather common in space not just on a rocky or icy surface

 

[Subduction Zone]

Not really what I meant sorry for the confusion. Oxygen molecules are rather common in space not just on a rocky or icy surface

Oxygen is plentiful in minerals. The problem is getting it out of those minerals. That takes quite a bit of energy and proper chemical reactions. Merely melting the rock will not do. I was thinking about it and thought that electrolysis was the only option and it turns out that is what they are planning to do according to the linked article. It might just work.