Ingenious: China Extracts Drinking Water from Lunar Soil

Scientists are exploring ways to make the Moon a viable habitat for humans, focusing on creating sustainable resources necessary for life. In a significant advancement, Chinese researchers are now working on a method to produce water on the Moon using lunar soil.

Water is crucial for survival, making it a top priority in the quest to establish life on the Moon. After detecting signs of water, scientists are now attempting to generate it directly on the lunar surface.

Leading this effort is Professor WANG Junqiang from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His team has devised a technique to create water from lunar soil, which could be essential for supporting human life on the Moon.

How are scientists extracting water from lunar soil?
Researchers have developed a strategy for large-scale water production on the Moon by utilizing a unique chemical reaction between hydrogen and lunar regolith. This reaction is key to extracting drinkable water.

“We used lunar regolith samples brought back by the Chang’E-5 mission in our study, aiming to find a way to produce water on the Moon,” explained Professor WANG. He emphasized the importance of using actual lunar material to ensure the experiment’s reliability.

During the experiments, heating lunar regolith above 1,200 K with specially designed concave mirrors resulted in the creation of one gram of molten lunar regolith, which can produce approximately 51 to 76 milligrams of water.

This means that one tonne of lunar regolith could produce over 50 kilograms of water, equivalent to around 100 half-liter bottles of drinking water. Such a quantity could provide sufficient drinking water for 50 people for an entire day, demonstrating the potential to sustain human life on the Moon.

The researchers also highlighted that lunar ilmenite (FeTiO3), a mineral abundant in lunar regolith, is crucial for water extraction. This mineral was found to contain the highest concentration of hydrogen implanted by solar wind.

Furthermore, the water generated from lunar soil can be electrochemically split into hydrogen and oxygen, providing both breathable air and renewable energy sources for future lunar inhabitants.