Oxygen from lunar regolith

In the year 2004 NASA declared its mission to prepare for a return of man to the moon as early as 2015 but no later than 2020, while continuing with robotic missions to Mars (NASA 2004). As a long-term goal, it was intended to establish permanent human presence on the moon and eventually send human missions to Mars. Although the future of US space exploration policy is now more uncertain, following a recent review (Augustine Commission 2009) and the cancellation of the Constellation Program (NASA 2010a), it remains true that an extended human presence on the moon is desirable for scientific and economic reasons (e.g., Crawford 2004; Spudis 2005). For this to become possible, significant progress is needed in the field of ‘living off the land’, or in situ resource utilisation (ISRU).

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