Researchers have conducted experiments with lunar regolith and have concluded that it is possible to extract much more water from it than previously thought. And this can be done simply by heating it.

Water in the lunar regolith

The future colonization of the Moon is closely linked to the availability of water on it. The problem of supplying astronauts with water is usually limited to ice reserves at the poles. However, a team of researchers from China’s Ningbo Institute of Materials Science and Engineering recently demonstrated that the lunar regolith is sufficient to make this possible.

It has been known since the Apollo crew that the top layer of rock contains water. And recent studies using Chinese equipment have confirmed this. However, the most important substance for life is only present in very small quantities in the regolith – between 0.0001% and 0.02%.

However, as Chinese scientists have discovered, this is only the case if only the physicochemically bound matter is counted. If the hydrogen and oxygen contained in the minerals are released and combined with each other, significantly more water is produced.

How much water can be extracted from one ton of regolith?

It turns out that extracting the hidden water is not that difficult. It is enough to heat the regolith to 1200 °C. This is exactly the kind of experiment the authors of the new study conducted. They did not even need a powerful oven or laser. All they needed was a system of concave mirrors that focused the sunlight.

It turned out that from one gram of regolith you can get 51-76 mg of water. This does not seem like much, but if you take a ton of rock, you can get 50 liters from it. And this is enough for several people for more than one day.

Subsequent studies have shown that the rock ilmenite, which is also found in some places on the moon, often contains even more water in its composition. In general, research has shown that hydrogen in lunar rocks has great potential for use. It can not only supply people and plants with water, but can also be used as rocket fuel.

According to phys.org