With the ongoing space explorations, little by little, humanity has been learning more about our planetary neighbors. And although it has been talked about countless times in science fiction about settling on other planets, the Moon might not be a bad option in terms of amounts of oxygen. A new NASA program ensures that there is enough oxygen in the Earth’s satellite for 16 billion people to inhabit it for 50 thousand years.
The atmospheric conditions of each planet are totally different. The Martian atmosphere, for example, is extremely light and although it is believed that it was once prolific, it is now composed mostly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon. That is, it would be completely toxic to terrestrial life.
As for the Moon, it has an extremely thin atmosphere with hydrogen being its main element. There are also large amounts of oxygen present on the satellite, although not exactly in the way we are used to.
Lunar regolith oxygen
The lunar atmosphere could not provide us with the necessary oxygen, but its soil could. The layer is known as regolith, is the rocky surface that makes up the exterior of the Moon and has large amounts of oxygen.
For you to get an idea, 45% of its constitution is oxygen, and it is enough for 16 billion people to inhabit it for at least 50 thousand years. But, there is a big problem, humans breathe oxygen as a gas, not lunar rocky sediment. So is there anything that can be done about it?
NASA and the Australian Space Agency have agreed to send a rover through the Artemis mission, with the goal of collecting lunar rocks as an “attempt to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith”.
While this research is still a long way off, the results could change space exploration forever. A lunar base would then become much more feasible and the human stay on the Moon would have a place in the projects.
