The Moon is dusty, completely covered with a layer of several centimeters of grains of material in a good percentage of metal. That dust, originating from the continuous collisions with meteorites, of every size from the millimeter up, hides within itself a real treasure, and it is not gold or lithium or diamonds, but something much more precious: the components of water.
To understand how to extract them and re-couple them in the precious molecule, an operation that is not exactly easy, the academy, in the case the Polytechnic of Milan with its prestigious Laboratory of Aerospace Science and Technology, and the industry, Ohb Italia, were put together.
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The result is there, at least in the Polytechnic laboratory where the machinery that extracted the much desired H2O from sand that substantially replicates the dust and lunar regolith was prepared, with a system that involves two distinct steps.
An important achievement for survival on our satellite, now that Europe and America, but also Russia and China, are preparing to attempt the great leap to return to the Moon, and that’s okay, but also to stay there. For us humans, breathing and drinking are not optional.
For the moment the equipment is demonstrative, as Roberto Aceti, CEO of Ohb Italia says, but which demonstrates the feasibility of a fundamental enabling technology to send human beings to our natural satellite even in complex structures. “In this particular field we are ahead of other countries”, concludes Aceti.