Research Projects

Oxygen production using the resources available on the Moon is the most important factor in developing In-Situ Resource Utilization technology in the view of potential application of oxygen for life-support system and propellant for ascent vehicles. Maturing the energy efficient and compact oxygen synthesis unit using Lunar regolith plays a critical role for interplanetary mission planning towards lunar exploration. There are diverse methodologies available for generation of O2 from lunar soil, for example, chemical reduction, pyrolysis, acid treatment, or molten regolith electrolysis are the widely used processes. Out of this molten regolith electrolysis has been considered to be potential approach; however molten regolith electrolysis process is not explored in detail due to the fact of oxidation of anode at high temperature with oxygen environment. In molten electrolysis process, Entire lunar regolith can be used as the raw material. In this process, consisting of an electrolytic cell, regolith is melted and potential is applied such that Oxygen is deposited at the anode and metal is deposited at the cathode. The project aims to develop molten regolith electrolysis process for oxygen production from simulated lunar soil.