As such, long term space occupation isn’t really practical or feasible without ISRU technology. However, the moon has virtually no atmosphere according to NASA, so technology must be created to extract oxygen from naturally occurring minerals in the ground. NASA has already showcased certain ISRU technologies, most notably MOXIE, a small instrument onboard the Mars Perseverance Rover which successfully converted atmospheric carbon dioxide into usable oxygen on April 20, 2021. Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) for ISRU technologies which essentially allows them to start officially gathering information from outside parties for their future Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies demonstration, also known as LIFT-1.
NASA is taking steps to prepare for future long-term occupation on the Moon by seeking input from the lunar and scientific communities on ways to convert lunar soil and other naturally-occurring compounds into oxygen.
The nation’s leading space organization made an announcement Monday asking for input on In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies, which in this case means using materials found on the moon, the vast majority of which are moon dust, to produce fuel, oxygen, water and other resources human beings might use or consume. These processes may...
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