Scientists in Nanjing have potentially cracked one of the biggest conundrums of all for humankind to be able to establish a permanent presence on our nearest neighbour in space. And key to that effort shall be the carbon dioxide exhaled by the inhabitants of our Moon base.
Last Friday, 6 May, saw reports emerge of the breakthrough made by the scientific team at Nanjing University, known locally as “Nanda”. It’s a discovery they’ve dubbed, “extraterrestrial photosynthesis”.
By analysing a sample of lunar soil brought back to Earth by the Chang’e 5 spacecraft, the team found that it included iron-rich and titanium-rich substances. The team proposes combining these with water molecules found on the moon and the gases exhaled by human lunar inhabitants to then catalyse them into useful compounds.
And that’s what makes this discovery special. Up until now, there have been many proposals for how humankind may survive long spells spent on the Moon, but in each case, an external energy source brought along from Earth is required.
For example, NASA’s Mars rover, Perseverance, has on board an instrument which can take carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and make oxygen. However, it needs the nuclear battery brought from home to power it.
According to DNAIndia, the process pioneered by the team at Nanda, “mainly uses lunar soil to electrolyse water extracted from the Moon and in astronauts’ breathing exhaust into oxygen and hydrogen powered by sunlight.
“The carbon dioxide exhaled by Moon inhabitants is also collected and combined with hydrogen from water electrolysis during a hydrogenation process catalysed by lunar soil.”
Team member, Yao Yingfang, pointed out being completely independent from Earth’s resources will be vital in humankind’s reaching for the stars.
“If we want to carry out large-scale exploration of the extraterrestrial world, we will need to think of ways to reduce payload, meaning relying on as little supplies from Earth as possible and using extraterrestrial resources instead”, said Yao.
As per the University’s website, Yao is an associate professor of Nanjing University, studying solar energy related photocatalytic and electrocatalytic substances.
The Nanda team’s study has been published in Joule, a Massachusetts-based, peer-reviewed journal publishing articles reporting findings of unusual significance in the field of energy research.
