High Purity Oxygen Separation from a Pyrolysis Gas Mixture by Rapid Solid Oxide Ion Transport

With the Artemis program, NASA currently plans to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2025, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. The need for oxygen extraction from lunar regolith has been identified by the STMD (Space Technology Mission Directorate). Successful oxygen extraction from the abundant regolith resources would enable extended astronautsrsquo; stays and repeated/further travels at substantially lower costs. Such a technology, if successful, is expected to benefit growing aerospace activities from both government agencies and the private sector.The A-Terrarsquo;s solid state ion transport vacuum pyrolysis technology is fully renewable-energy based, which empowers rapid production of 99%+ high purity oxygen and metals from the lunar regolith. A-Terra now shifts to Phase II where a bench scale oxygen extraction apparatus will be constructed based on their successful Phase I outcomes. The Phase II system will have the same basic components as the Phase I model, however, it will be tactically redesigned and upgraded to produce the oxygen at a rate of 100 kg/year or higher, assuming approximately 180 days of sun light availability on the moon and no battery utilization is considered for supplemental night operations.