Oxygen production from lunar regolith by microwave heating

自从人类第一次踏上月球以来，已经将近50年了。然而，由于费用问题，自阿波罗任务以来就没有返回过。一个限制因素是运输成本；每运送一公斤物质到月球需要600公斤推进剂。就地资源利用（ISRU）是收集、处理和储存本地材料，而不是从地球运输材料，以降低总体任务成本和风险(1)。氧气是一种特别重要的资源，因为它对维持生命至关重要，可以用作推进剂。该项目有两个月球风化土的特点，首先，氧气以水的形式可以从常见的月球矿物石灰石中提取，通过900度的氢还原，2，第二，月球风化土被微波有效地加热3，与开放大学的航天器仪器开发团队合作，成功的候选人将使用真空微波设备加热月球模拟物以释放挥发物。研究微波能与样品的耦合。

It has been nearly 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon. However, there has been no return since the Apollo missions because of the expense. One limiting factor is the cost of transport; every kg of material transported to the Moon requires 600 kg of propellant. In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) is the collection, processing and storage of indigenous materials instead of transporting material from Earth to reduce overall mission cost and risk (1). Oxygen is a particularly important resource as it is essential for life-support and can be used as a propellant. the project has two features of lunar regolith lunar soil, first, oxygen in the form of water can be extracted from the common lunar mineral limenite, by reduction with hydrogen at 900 degrees, 2, second, lunar regolith is efficiently heated by microwaves 3, Working with the Spacecraft instrument Development team at the Open University the successful candidate will be using the vacuum microwave facility to heat lunar simulants to release volaties, investigating the coupling of microwave energy to the sample.