In situ resource utilization of lunar soil for highly efficient extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen supply

Yuan Zhong; Jingxiang Low; Qing Zhu; Yawen Jiang; Xiwen Yu; Xinyu Wang; Fei Zhang; Weiwei Shang; Ran Long; Yingfang Yao; Wei Yao; Jun Jiang; Yi Luo; Weihua Wang; Jinlong Yang; Zhigang Zou; Yujie Xiong

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwac200

In situ resource utilization of lunar soil for highly efficient extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen supply

Natl Sci Rev. 2022 Sep 23;10(2):nwac200. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwac200. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Yuan Zhong¹, Jingxiang Low¹, Qing Zhu¹, Yawen Jiang¹, Xiwen Yu², Xinyu Wang¹, Fei Zhang¹, Weiwei Shang¹, Ran Long¹, Yingfang Yao², Wei Yao³, Jun Jiang¹, Yi Luo¹, Weihua Wang³, Jinlong Yang¹, Zhigang Zou², Yujie Xiong¹

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
² Eco-Materials and Renewable Energy Research Center (ERERC), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Nano Technology, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
³ Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China.

Abstract

Building up a lunar settlement is the ultimate aim of lunar exploitation. Yet, limited fuel and oxygen supplies restrict human survival on the Moon. Herein, we demonstrate the in situ resource utilization of lunar soil for extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen production, which may power up our solely natural satellite and supply respiratory gas. Specifically, the lunar soil is loaded with Cu species and employed for electrocatalytic CO₂ conversion, demonstrating significant production of methane. In addition, the selected component in lunar soil (i.e. MgSiO₃) loaded with Cu can reach a CH₄ Faradaic efficiency of 72.05% with a CH₄ production rate of 0.8 mL/min at 600 mA/cm². Simultaneously, an O₂ production rate of 2.3 mL/min can be achieved. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our developed process starting from catalyst preparation to electrocatalytic CO₂ conversion is so accessible that it can be operated in an unmmaned manner via a robotic system. Such a highly efficient extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen production system is expected to push forward the development of mankind's civilization toward an extraterrestrial settlement.

Keywords: CO2 conversion; Chang’E-5 lunar soil; extraterrestrial settlement; fuel production; in situ resource utilization.