New Discovery in Chang'e-5 Lunar Soil Research Method to Mass-Produce Water
TapTechNews August 22nd news, according to CCTV News report this morning, there is a new discovery in the research of Chang'e-5 lunar soil in China - a scientific research team composed of units such as the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, after 3 years of in-depth research and repeated verification, discovered a brand new method of mass-producing water using lunar soil, which is expected to provide an important design basis for the construction of future lunar research stations and space stations.
The scientific research team found through in-depth research and repeated verification that due to the irradiation of the solar wind for hundreds of millions of years, lunar soil minerals have stored a large amount of hydrogen. After being heated to a high temperature, hydrogen will have an oxidation-reduction reaction with iron oxides in the minerals, generating elemental iron and a large amount of water. If the temperature rises above 1000°C, the lunar soil will melt and the water generated by the reaction will be released in the form of steam.
After various experimental techniques analysis, the research team confirmed that about 51-76 milligrams of water can be produced in 1 gram of lunar soil. Based on this calculation, 51-76 kilograms of water can be produced from 1 ton of lunar soil.
The scientific research team, after further studying different lunar minerals, found that heating ilmenite in lunar soil can simultaneously produce a large number of elemental iron and steam bubbles, which is truly a lunar reservoir.
TapTechNews learned from the report that water is a key resource for building lunar research stations and for lunar interstellar travel and ensuring human survival in the future, and exploring water resources is one of the primary tasks of lunar exploration.
The report said that this strategy will provide an important design basis for the future construction of lunar research stations and space stations, and it is expected to launch verification equipment in the subsequent Chang'e lunar exploration missions to complete further confirmation.