Oxygen

LUNOX is short for Lunar Oxygen, which is oxygen harvested from resources available on the moon. Oxygen is a major requirement for sustaining any human presence on the lunar surface, useful both for life support and also as a major component of rocket fuel. Lunar Oxygen production is one category of In Situ Resource Utilization, or ISRU.

Oxygen

Atomic symbol:	O
Atomic number:	8
Group:	16
Period:	2
Series:	Chalcogens

Methods of LUNOX Production

Most of the methods of lunar oxygen production envision the reduction of lunar regolith or rocks to liberate oxygen, although another possible method of harvesting oxygen is to free small amounts of trapped gas from soil by heating. Reduction methods include:

• Aluminum reduction
• Carbothermal reduction
• Fluorine reaction
• Ilmenite Reduction
• Magma electrolysis
• Methane reduction

In any Lunox production sequence, it is necessary that all reactants are returned to the initial state.

External Links

• lunar oxygen process sequence discussion from Knudson and Gibson (1989) (note: a good summary of approaches, but somewhat out of date)
• Lunar processing links from David Dietzler
• LLOX automated production summary (1990)

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