Water plays a crucial role in human survival on the lunar surface and is therefore attracting great attention in research. Prof. Wang Junqiang’s team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently developed a new method for mass water production through a reaction between lunar regolith and endogenous hydrogen.

Research results from previous lunar explorations, such as the Apollo and Chang’E-5 missions, have shown that water is widespread on the Moon. However, the water content in lunar minerals is extremely low, ranging between 0.0001% and 0.02%. Extracting and using water locally on the Moon remains a challenge.

“We used samples of lunar regolith brought back by the Chang’E-5 mission in our study to find a way to produce water on the moon,” said Wang. The study was published in The innovation.

The study found that one gram of molten lunar regolith can produce 51–76 mg of water when the lunar regolith is heated to over 1,200 K using concave mirrors. In other words, one ton of lunar regolith could produce more than 50 kg of water, which is equivalent to about a hundred 500 ml drinking water bottles. That would be enough drinking water for 50 people for a day.

In addition, lunar ilmenite (FeTiO₃) contained the highest proportion of solar wind-implanted hydrogen of the five major minerals in the lunar regolith, due to its unique lattice structure with subnanometer tunnels.

In-situ heating experiments have shown that hydrogen in lunar minerals is an important resource for water production on the Moon. This water could be used for both drinking and irrigating crops. In addition, it could be electrochemically split into hydrogen and oxygen, with hydrogen being used for energy and oxygen being essential for breathing.

These discoveries provide groundbreaking insights into water research on the Moon and provide insight into the future construction of lunar research stations.