New Delhi: Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has revealed its Air Pioneer technology, a reactor that converts simulated lunar regolith or Moon Dust into oxygen.
The technology was developed by the Space Resource Centre of Excellence (SRCE) in LA. The reactor passes a current through melted regolith simulant to release oxygen and other gases, that flow into a purification system and emerges as medical and propellant-grade oxygen. A flight-qualified version can provide breathable oxygen to explorers on the Moon. While oxygen is useful for the life support systems for Astronauts, far more is needed for producing rocket fuel, with the tech having the potential of bringing down launch costs from the Moon.
Blue Origin has pioneered development of In-Space Utilisation (ISRU) systems, and has also developed the Blue Alchemist, that can transform regolith into solar power systems, breathable oxygen, propellant-grade oxygen, metals, and construction materials, all of which are needed for establishing a sustained presence of humans on the lunar surface. The SRCE is also developing the Blue Alchemist technology, using the largest dedicated facility for space resource prospecting and utilisation. Blue Alchemist offers a zero-carbon, environmentally friendly, solar cell manufacturing process using feedstock such as desert sand, and has potential applications on Earth as well. The same technology can also be used in Mars.
The benefit of ISRU
As human beings begin to dream of establishing bases on extraterrestrial surfaces, such as the Moon and Mars, the missions will have to plan for utilising the locally available resources. In fact, it may not be feasible to launch a crewed mission to the surface of Mars at all, without the capability of extracting and processing the fuel from Martian regolith for the return journey. This is why scientists have to figure out how to use the locally available resources, mostly in the form of regolith, to produce the materials, tools and spare parts that future astronauts will need.
