NASA gone cuckoo-cuckoo

[UncleAl]

Would you like a quick $(USD)250K?

 

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-15.html

MoonROx (Moon Regolith Oxygen)

 

"Entrants must build a device, within certain weight and power limits, that can extract at least five kilograms of oxygen from a sample of volcanic ash (a substitute for lunar soil) in the space of eight hours. The first team to build and demonstrate such a gadget before 1 June 2008 will claim the cash."

 

Given that the semiconductor industry would pay a fortune to directly isolate elemental silicon from silicate, Uncle Al senses a synergism here. The only thing standing in the winner's path is thermodynamics. As silicon foundries will tell you, molten silicate does not electrolyze to oxygen and silicon. Even aluminum electrowinning needs the thermodynamic push of anode oxidation.

 

Maybe if we had a high temperature electrolyte membrane... and a way to drop the melt viscosity... and our thumb up Tinkerbelle's bottom...

 

Uncle Al wishes everybody good luck on obtaining the 156 moles of O2.

[nkt]

Sounds like a fun challenge.

 

Ok, take the rocks and squeeze them really hard, so they are liquid, and let the O2 bubble off the top.

 

Seriously, though, what are the electropotentials for the Si-O bonds? In a hard vaccuum melt, would it be possible to perform electrolysis? What about with an additive of some form? You could drop the viscosity by further increasing the temperature, using yet more fire clay/ash/moon rock as both insulation and crucible.

 

I doubt anyone is going to be inside any kind of sane weight or power limits, regardless of the result.

 

Perhaps the best way might be to turn the surface into solar cells by this process - I recall reading about this somewhere - it might even have been your site, Al! - which could power the system.

 

I've got a great design for an electric space cannon that could be used to throw rocks at earth - do you think they would give me $250K for that?

[Queso]

ask 'em.

[UncleAl]

Seriously, though, what are the electropotentials for the Si-O bonds? In a hard vaccuum melt, would it be possible to perform electrolysis?

Electrolysis of the rock melt or plasma gas phase - all powered by sunlight - is the only possible path without material consummables. It cannot be done even in principle. Serious exotica like selective frequency laser photolysis would be bad jokes.

 

The densest stable storage of oxygen is water. Electrolyze. Sunlight is free at Earth orbit in space. NASA cannot afford to bring consummables along because NASA cannot boost mass. Recycling CO2 from respiration is by photosynthesis, and photosynthesis sucks - 1% efficency input energy vs. chemical outputs, low density reaction, and slow.

 

One could genetically engineer a decent RuBisCO and improve photosynthesis 10-fold with ease. That would have the unfortunate side effect of ending all hunger on Earth and bankrupting efficient food-producing First World nations. We call this UNKNOWN HAZARDS and legislate against it to SAVE OUR CHILDREN. President Bush the Lesser imposes faith-based science: Human life is sacred. Sacrifice it to your gods.

[EWright]

Couldn't access the article... any relation to this?

 

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050803_moon_nitrogen.html

[BlameTheEx]

The use of consumables is not inevitable for a chemical solution. Ether chemicals can be recycled or one could consider catalysts.

 

Sunlight could break any bond, especially the ultraviolet available outside our atmosphere. A catalyst might increase efficiency sufficiently.

[damocles]

Out of curiousity I GOOGLED "extracting oxygen from rock"

 

http://www.asi.org/adb/04/03/10/04/oxygen-extraction.html

 

As usual I won't comment since I do not know enough to make an intelligent observation, but I do ask, "is this process at all practical or is it as I suspect wildly optimistic?