# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers.
Let's go to the Moon!
No human has walked on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. This time, though, the astronauts will stay much longer than the few days of the Apollo 17 mission. So now, NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program is working on everything that will be needed to make the Moon a place where a crew of astronauts can live for months.

Explorers from Earth will have to build their own habitat, or home. Their home must protect them like no home on Earth would ever need to do. Why?

There is no air on the Moon. And the temperature varies from 387 degrees Fahrenheit BELOW zero (-233 Celsius) at night to 253 degrees Fahrenheit ABOVE zero (123 Celsius) in the day. Tiny micro-meteoroids (space rocks) rain down on the Moon's surface. And no atmosphere means no protection from the Sun's harsh radiation.

So a Moon habitat for humans will have to be very tough and very sturdy. It will have to be air tight, so the inside can be pumped up with breathable air without exploding or leaking. The habitat will have to be cooled during the Moon day and heated during the Moon night. It will need a water recycling system, a power generating system, and food storage and preparation facilities.

The materials to build the Moon habitat should be lightweight, since they will have to be boosted out of Earth's gravitational field using rockets.The habitat will have to be sent to the Moon in pieces and assembled by the explorers once they arrive. So it should be easy to put together, since the Moon explorers will be working in space suits.

As with any Moon habitat, it must have an airlock. The airlock is a small room between the door to the outside and the door to the inside. Both doors must close very tight and not leak any air. Before the astronaut opens the outside door, the inside door must be closed. The astronaut enters the airlock and closes the outside door. Then the airlock is pumped full of air. Only then can the astronaut open the inside door to enter the habitat. Leaving the habitat, the astronaut (in a spacesuit, of course), steps into the airlock with the outside door closed. The inside door is then closed and all the air pumped out of the airlock, making it a vacuum, just like the outside. The astronaut opens the outside door and steps outside.

You can be a Moon explorer too. Practice by building your own Moon habitat. Pretend you are an astronaut working with your team mates on the Moon to build your new home.

Materials you will need to build one Moon habitat:

148 sheets of newspaper (use a paper with large pages-tabloid size is too small-and use the full square spread)

Pencil

Masking or packaging tape

Scissors

Yardstick

Stapler (heavy-duty, if available)

Bed sheet, colored tissue paper, or more newspapers for "walls" (optional)

White glue or glue stick (optional)

Construct the Moon habitat:

1. Use four sheets of newspaper to build each log. Lay the sheets out flat, one on top of the other.

2. Set the pencil in the corner and roll across on the diagonal. Use the pencil to help you get started, and then remove the pencil. Roll evenly, but don't try to make the logs as thin as the pencil. When you get to the opposite corner of the paper, you'll have a tube or log. Tape the log shut.

Repeat this process until you have 37 logs. Then trim the ends a bit, making sure all the logs are the same length. They will be around 30 inches long.

Now you will need a big, open space in which to construct the habitat.

3. Staple three logs together to create a triangle. Repeat until you have five triangles.

4. Staple the five triangles to each other at their bottom corners. Add connecting logs across the top.

5. Staple the remaining five logs together at the center to make a star.

6. Then raise the five connected triangles, or walls, off the floor and staple the ends together to form a five-sided (pentagonal) structure. It helps to have one person hold up the walls while another person staples.

7. Now staple the free ends of the star to the junctions of the triangles on the top of the base, and the structure will stand by itself.

Construct the "airlock:"

1. You should have 12 logs left. These will make the "airlock." Staple three logs together to make another triangle (red in above drawing). Use two more logs (green) to attach the base of this triangle to one of the base logs of the "habitat." This triangle becomes the airlock door.

2. Using three more logs (blue), create a square by stapling them around the "door." The side logs will be a bit too long, so cut them off to make a square.

3. Use two more logs (yellow) to make a triangle to support the airlock at the top. To do this, staple the ends to the two top corners of the square and staple the other ends together where the triangles meet on the habitat.

4. Use the last two logs (purple) to stabilize the airlock as shown in the drawing.

Fill in with solid walls (optional):

1. You can give the structure "solid" walls by either carefully draping a sheet or two over it or by covering each section with tissue paper or newspaper. To do this, smear glue onto the logs and gently press pieces of colored tissue paper or newspaper onto the triangles. Don't forget to leave a door! You can rip or cut off the loose edges of the tissue paper.

Don't forget the NASA logo! Print it, cut it out, and pin or glue it to the outside of your Moon habitat.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Help the astronauts go back to the Moon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Establishing a colony on the moon would force scientists and engineers to solve extremely complex design problems but would open doors to further exploration into our galaxy and beyond. In order to establish a lunar colony, scientists and engineers would need to develop new lunar structures as well as determine a way for the lunar settlers to have enough vital resources to survive. In spite of the challenges at hand, we could feasibly see a colony on the moon in our lifetimes.

Living on the Moon

Living on the moon has been a part of science fiction for years, but isn't something most people think they will see in their lifetime. Establishing a settlement on the moon would force us to confront radically different design challenges than those we typically face here on Earth. But a colony on the moon would offer access to resources and energy production that we are unable to harness on Earth and could be a stepping stone to further exploration of our galaxy and beyond.

The lunar soil (or regolith) contains an abundance of natural resources including iron, aluminum, silicon, titanium, oxygen, and small amounts of carbon, helium 3, and nitrogen. This mineral supply is large enough for a lunar settlement to eventually become self-sufficient after extraction and mining techniques are sufficiently refined. These minerals could also potentially be exported back to the Earth for use [1].

The excitement about energy prospects on the moon has many corporations looking into the possibility of traveling back to the moon. At the poles of the moon, there is nearly constant sunlight that would allow for continuous generation of solar energy, which could be used on the moon or possibly converted to microwaves and sent back to Earth. The lunar soil also has a relatively high abundance of Helium 3, which is thought to be the key ingredient for energy generation through fusion [2]. While still theoretical, fusion is seen as a safer and more sustainable method for generating nuclear power, and Helium 3 is believed to be an environmentally friendly candidate for powering these fusion reactors [11]. The possibilities for energy generation from resources found on the moon are some of the biggest reasons that a lunar colony is being explored.

In order to further explore nearby planets, the depths of our galaxy, and potentially beyond, the moon is the logical first stop and could be a test site for new technologies as well as the launching point for deep space missions. The reduced gravity on the moon allows vehicles to escape its atmosphere and gravitational pull using less energy, making deep space travel easier and more cost-effective. Additionally, a telescope or observatory on the far side of the moon would allow researchers to look deeper into the galaxy than ever before. These telescopes would produce images-similar to the ones produced by the Hubble Space Telescope-that are much clearer than pictures taken from Earth because the moon does not have an atmosphere like Earth's to scatter light [1].

Establishing a colony on the moon would require different stages of development before a permanent settlement could be established. The first astronauts to travel back to the moon since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s would bring along the supplies and materials necessary to establish a presence on the moon. Initially, astronauts would live and work out of the moon lander used to travel to the moon, as in Fig. 1. These astronauts would begin building more permanent lunar structures that rely on resources brought from Earth for survival [3]. Ultimately, the goal would be to develop the capability to construct and maintain structures solely from resources collected or produced on the moon. In all stages of this process, engineers must develop unique strategies that can stand up to challenges of transportation, resource management, and infrastructural development.

Resource Requirements

The obvious first challenge of establishing a settlement on the moon is the absence of many of the resources necessary for our survival. The first lunar settlers will have to bring most of these materials with them, but eventually, for a lunar settlement to be viable, these resources will have to be collected or generated on the moon. The most important supplies and utilities would include water, breathable air, food, and energy.

In the past five years, NASA has found undeniable evidence of water on the moon that originated either from water-bearing comets crashing into its surface or from the moon itself [2]. In order to extract this water from the lunar surface, the astronauts would have to dehydrate and rehydrate the soil. "Gray water" systems or extensive recycling of water would be necessary to limit the amount of water that would have to be extracted from the lunar soil or brought from Earth. Lunar settlers could also use algae to filter their water, in addition to consuming algae as a nutritional protein source [4].

In addition to water, the lunar soil also contains a large amount of oxygen that would be a byproduct of any water extraction operations. Breathable air would also be a byproduct of any hydroponic farms-in which plants are grown in mineral solutions instead of soil-set up to grow food for lunar settlers. Hydroponic farming would provide fresh fruits and vegetables for people living on the moon, and the plants would filter the CO ₂ expelled by human settlers and convert it back to breathable air through photosynthesis [4][5].

The majority of energy required by a lunar colony would likely come from solar energy. The moon receives an almost constant stream of sunlight at its north and south poles, meaning that a lunar colony could rely almost completely on solar energy. Enough energy could be generated that the surplus could be converted to microwaves and sent back to Earth. The lunar soil also possesses a relatively high level of Helium 3, a rare gas used in fusion, and just 50 kilograms of the gas could power the city of Atlanta for a whole year while producing very little waste, should nuclear fusion become feasible in the future [6].

Habitat Requirements

Designing a habitable space for a lunar settlement would be drastically different from designing a structure here on Earth. Any dwelling on the moon would need to be pressurized and pumped full of breathable air in order to make it livable for humans. Most of the structures on Earth are designed to withstand the forces and weights due to Earth's gravitational pull pushing down on them, while the structures on the moon would need to be designed to withstand a strong upward force from the high pressure inside the habitat necessary to create the pressurized environment needed for humans to survive. In addition, the habitats would have to be designed to be airtight and to protect its inhabitants from radiation and drastic temperature changes. Additionally, before the structures can be built from local materials, they will have to be light enough to be efficiently transported to the moon and easily constructed by the astronauts.

One of the most talked-about options for a lunar habitat is an inflatable structure. This structure could be either spherical or pillow-shaped and would self-inflate in several hours. Because of the strong outward force created when the living space is pressurized, the inflatable habitats allow for an optimized living space while still using lightweight materials [7]. However, the inflatable environments offer little protection from radiation and the other hazards of living in space. For this reason, the habitats would ultimately need to be covered in a layer of lunar soil up to five or six feet thick. This layer would protect the lunar settlers from solar radiation, offer some insulation from the drastic temperature shifts, and protect them if small meteorites or other debris struck their habitat [1].

Another popular option for building a habitat on the moon is to build a settlement inside one of the many craters on the moon (some of which are pictured in Fig. 2) or in one of the lava tubes that exist below the surface. Both options would provide natural protection from solar radiation and meteorites, and more easily maintain a more constant temperature than the surface of the moon. Inside the lava tubes, inflatable structures similar to the ones built on the lunar surface could be erected or domes could be built to enclose a crater. This could allow the inhabitants to carve living spaces out of the crater walls and potentially use the crater floor for agriculture, research, and storage [1].

Other proposed options for lunar habitats include rigid arch structures and "erectables." Rigid arch structures are an appealing option for construction on the lunar surface because of their extensive implementation on Earth. The arches could be made with hinged connections and transported to the moon in prefabricated parts to ease construction. In the case of "erectables," the pieces could be brought into a low Earth or moon orbit where the main skeleton of the structure would be built. Once the structure is completed, it would be "shipped" to the moon [7]. A rigid arch structure would be heavier and thus more costly to transport to the moon, but "erectables" may present a more cost-efficient option [1].

As our lunar colonies expand, a need may emerge to travel long distances on mining or exploration missions, in which case a large, pressurized lunar rover will need to be developed. These lunar rovers would support the explorers for extended periods of time and allow them to travel hundreds of miles without returning to the main settlement. One proposed rover has space suits attached to the back that act as the rear door and allow the explorers to easily get into their suit to closely examine the lunar surface and to gather samples [6].

Transportation Requirements

The hardest part of establishing a lunar colony will be actually travelling back to the moon. It takes an enormous amount of energy to get outside of Earth's gravitational pull and thus is incredibly expensive. In 2004, President George W. Bush introduced a space exploration initiative, with one of its many goals to establish a moon base. The Constellation Program was shelved in the 2011 United States federal budget, but before it was cancelled, the program was able to develop a two rocket system to transport astronauts, equipment, and materials to the moon [6][8].

As part of the Constellation Program, the Ares I rocket (Fig. 3) was being designed for human transport and would be the first rocket to launch for a moon colonization mission. The rockets designed to send humans and equipment into space involve multiple stages and multiple rocket boosters. The first stage of the Ares 1 rocket is very similar to the rocketry used on a space shuttle, but the Ares 1 component is taller in order to give it more power. The second stage of the Ares 1 rocket is an updated version of the rockets used during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s [6].

The Ares V rocket (Fig. 3) would theoretically launch soon after Ares I. It was being designed to carry all the equipment and materials needed to establish a lunar colony. The Ares V is powered by two of the same larger Space Shuttle rockets used on Ares I, as well a cluster of five main engines based off the rockets used for the large Delta IV rocket. The Ares V would be over 350 feet tall, making it the largest rocket ever built [6].

By the time it achieves orbit around the Earth, the Ares I would drop both of its main rockets and would include only the Orion capsule that contains the astronauts. The Orion capsule would then deploy solar panels to power its instruments before docking with the Ares V rocket. The maneuver, called Rendezvous, would require the Orion capsule to be expertly flown and aligned with the end of the Ares V. Once the two are joined, the Ares V rocket would fire one more time, accelerating the ship to speeds of over 24,000 miles per hour and sending the astronauts and their equipment to the moon. Four days later the astronauts would arrive at the moon, where they would most likely land near the south pole and the Shackleton Crater [6].

Once on the moon, transportation will be a key factor in establishing a successful lunar colony. The lunar soil and the reduced gravity on the moon reduce the traction between a wheeled vehicle and the soil. With less traction, vehicles have a higher risk of getting stuck, and more energy will be required to move the vehicle. In addition, the Apollo missions demonstrated that driving vehicles directly on the lunar surface throws a lot of lunar soil into the atmosphere, which is bad for machine operation and is hazardous to humans [7].

Solutions to this problem include building lunar roads, building vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, or building a lunar cable car system. Building roads would involve compacting or melting the lunar soil into a form of "lunar concrete" that could be fused to the rough surface of the moon. However, this would likely be incredibly expensive, involve enormous amounts of energy, and be very difficult to do. The vertical takeoff and landing vehicles would produce a large amount of dust during takeoff and landing, thus requiring some sort of blast protection and landing pad to protect the settlements from the hazards of the lunar soil. If there were to be multiple large settlements on the moon, this would be a more viable form of transportation, as few landing pads would have to be constructed. Building a lunar cable car system is likely to be the most effective and require little infrastructure to build [7].

Conclusion

Establishing a settlement on the moon would involve enormous costs and thus has faced many political hurdles. During the 2012 Republican Primaries, Newt Gingrich stated that he would like to build a permanent colony on the moon by 2020, which was met with ample criticism. It has been estimated that establishing a moon base would cost between 250 to 500 billion dollars [8]. Nevertheless, many countries-includin​g India, China, Japan, the United States, and the members of the European Space Agency-are exploring the possibility of establishing a moon colony. Additionally, NASA may reach out to a private corporation for the resources required to return to the moon, as it recently offered a prize for the first commercial space craft to reach Earth's lower atmosphere [9][10].

While the present political and economic landscapes do not provide much support for establishing a moon colony, doing so would be a huge leap forward for society and science. It would also allow us to gain a strong foothold in space and establish a foundation for further exploration and possible planetary colonization. Establishing a colony is the logical first step in sending humans to Mars and gives us access to important energy resources. Humans have been fascinated with the moon for thousands of years, the desire to tackle this challenge and travel deeper into the galaxy and beyond will ultimately be the driving force behind establishing a lunar colony.

References

[1] F. Ruess, J. Schaenzlin, H. Benaroya. (2006). "Structural Design of a Lunar Habitat," Journal of Aerospace Engineering, vol. 19, no. 3, pp 133-157, July 1961.

[2] Teague Soderman. (2011). New data about the Moon may help create lunar bases [Online]. Available: http://lunarscience.​nasa.gov/articles/lu​nar-bases/

[3] Niklas Järvstråt, Cengiz Toklu. "Design and Construction for Self-sufficiency in a Lunar Colony," in Third International Conference on Advances in Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Seoul, Korea, 2004, pp 110-122.

[4] Gregory Mone. (2007). The Green Side of the Moon [Online]. Available: http://www.popsci.co​mlunagaia

[5] Anna Heiney. (2004). Farming for the Future [Online]. Available: http://www.nasa.gov/​missions/science/bio​farming.html

[6] National Geographic. (2012). Living on the Moon [Online]. Available: http://www.youtube.c​om/watch?v=Sh0F4IK0R​os

[7] Ian O'Neill. (2008). Building a Moon Base [Online]. Available: http://www.universet​oday.com/12726/build​ing-a-base-on-the-mo​on-challenges-and-ha​zards/

[8] Blake Ellis. (2012). Newt's moon colony: What would it cost? [Online]. Available: http://money.cnn.com​/2012/01/27/pf/newt_​gingrich_moon_colony​/index.htm

[9] Joanna Burgess. (2011). 10 Pros (and Cons) of Colonizing the Moon [Online]. Available: http://dsc.discovery​.com/tv-shows/curios​ity/topics/pros-and-​cons-of-colonizing-t​he-moon.htm

[10] Kenneth Chang. (2012). For a Moon Colony, Technology Is the Easy Part [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.c​om/2012/01/28/scienc​e/space/for-a-moon-c​olony-technology-is-​the-easy-part.html?p​agewanted=all&_r=1&

[11] John Lasker. (2006). Race to the Moon for Nuclear Fuel [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com​/science/space/news/​2006/12/72276?curren​tPage=all

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Establishing a colony on the moon would force scientists and engineers to solve extremely complex design problems but would open doors to further exploration into our galaxy and beyond.

# data[].attributes.headline
Growing food in regolith, aka moon soil! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Growing food in regolith, aka moon soil! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lunar horticulture: Plants grown in lunar “soil” for the first time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For the first time, scientists have grown plants in lunar regolith, the mixture of rock and dust that covers the surface of the Moon*. This is very cool.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Growing Food in Space: The Final Frontier

USDA/NASA Research on the International Space Station

Sure, space travel is super cool, but there is no shortage of challenges when it comes to space travel and colonization, mainly having enough oxygen, food, and water. Space travel in the future is expected to last from several months to years, and astronauts will need to maintain healthy diets during those extended voyages.

Have you ever wondered how NASA will provide food for astronauts on a really long flight, say to Mars?

Well, scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service are working with NASA to develop sustainable farming techniques and technologies to grow fresh produce while in spaceflight.

Check out these stories to learn how.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
feeding astronauts on the international space station

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ARS scientists are working with NASA to develop sustainable farming techniques and technologies to grow fresh produce while in spaceflight.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Will We Extract Water on the Moon? We Asked a NASA Technologist: Episode 47 - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Much Water Would a Self-Sustaining Moonbase Need?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As humanity returns to the Moon in the next few years, they’re going to need water to survive. While resupplies from Earth would work for a time, eventually the lunar base would have to become self-sustaining? So, how much water would be required to make this happen? This is what a recently submitted study hopes … Continue reading “How Much Water Would a Self-Sustaining Moonbase Need?”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Given plans for future manned missions to the Moon - and interest in the potential for longer-term lunar habitation - the presence of water on the Moon is of critical importance. Studies over the last few decades have revealed water lurking on our satellite in numerous forms. But how does it get there?

Water In, Water Out

Lunar water has been found locked in ice form in the cold, permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles, and drifting in gas form in the very thin lunar atmosphere. In addition, we've discovered that water exists in trace amounts across the Moon's surface, bound to lunar minerals.

But lunar water is more complicated than its mere presence or absence. The Moon is also thought to have a water cycle - water is continuously created on or delivered to the Moon's surface, and then destroyed on or removed from it.

Understanding the driving processes in this cycle will enable us to best leverage the Moon's resources and deepen our insight into the physics that influences airless rocky bodies throughout our solar system and beyond.

Identifying Processes

Based on laboratory experiments and lunar observations, here's our understanding so far:

1. Production
We think the continuous production of lunar surface water may largely be driven by incoming protons - hydrogen nuclei - from the solar wind, which then bind with the oxygen in lunar minerals to form water. Other processes may also contribute, like production from additional sources of incoming protons, or episodic delivery of water via comets and asteroids.

2. Removal
Water on the Moon's surface is primarily removed through continuous processes likephotodissociation - the decomposition of water molecules by sunlight.

With the rich observations recently produced by missions like NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M ³) spectrometer on India's Chandrayaan-1 orbiting probe, we're currently in an excellent position to test this understanding.

In a new publication led by Huizi Wang (Shandong University and Chinese Academy of Sciences), a joint team of space physicists and planetary scientists presents an exploration of water production on the surface of the Moon.

Windy Production

As the Moon circles the Earth, it spends 3-5 days each month shielded from the solar wind by the Earth's magnetosphere. If incoming protons from the solar wind are the primary driver of lunar water production, Wang and collaborators argue, then measurements of lunar water abundance should show a decrease during those 3-5 days, assuming water continues to be destroyed at the same rate via photodissociation.

Instead, the authors find that spectroscopy from M ³ reveals no change in water abundances over the complete lunar orbit, despite observations showing the expected drop in incoming solar wind energy when the Moon passes through Earth's magnetosphere.

Could another source contribute to production of water on the Moon, keeping abundances constant? Wang and collaborators demonstrate that when the Moon is shielded from the solar wind, incoming protons from the Earth's wind - a weaker stream of charged particles from the Earth's magnetosphere - could provide the protons needed to maintain observed water abundances on the Moon's surface.

There are still many open questions, but the future holds more opportunities to refine our understanding. The Chinese Chang'e 5 lunar mission successfully measured lunar material and brought samples back to Earth late last year, and the planned Artemis missions to the Moon will soon provide further insight.

Citation

"Earth Wind as a Possible Exogenous Source of Lunar Surface Hydration," H. Z. Wang et al 2021 ApJL 907 L32. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abd559

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Without a resupply source, the Moon's surface water would vanish. What's keeping it hydrated?

# data[].attributes.headline
What about body waste? Don't toss it out! 

# data[].attributes.subject
What about body waste? Don't toss it out! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NASA just recycled 98% of all astronaut pee and sweat on the ISS (engineers are thrilled)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ISS systems hit a water recovery milestone of 98% with the better processing of water contained in brine created when crewmates' urine is distilled.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Year in Space Crew Will Drink 730 Liters of Recycled Urine and Sweat - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Water is a precious and limited resource in space, so International Space Station crew members recycle it whenever possible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NASA, in partnership with NineSigma, is seeking new ideas to facilitate recycling in space, through a crowdsourcing challenge as part of the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL). The Recycling in Space Challenge is an opportunity for the public to submit proposals for components capable of storing and transferring trash to a thermal processing unit.

Participants will be able to submit entries from Wednesday, Oct. 10, at 12 p.m. EDT through Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 5 p.m. EST. NASA plans to award $10,000 to the first-place winner, and two $2,500 second prizes. Successful entrants also may have the opportunity for future collaboration with the agency. NASA will announce winners for the Recycling in Space Challenge in March 2019.

Long-duration human space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars need solutions for managing trash and other waste generated by the crew. NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems logistics reduction project is developing technologies to mitigate issues with waste. Four astronauts can generate 2,500 kilograms of waste during a yearlong mission. Trash takes up space and presents a safety risk to the crew from biological and physical hazards. Current waste disposal methods on the International Space Station rely on astronauts manually processing trash by placing it into bags then loading it onto a designated vehicle for short term storage, which depending on the craft, returns the trash to Earth or burns up in the atmosphere. This disposal method will not be available for missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

Recycling trash is one method for mitigating these issues, as well as potentially transforming waste into a source of supplies for the mission. Astronauts can process small pieces of trash in a high-temperature reactor, which breaks the waste down into water, oxygen, and other gases which the crew can use or vent as needed. Besides the gases, the remainder of the waste is greatly reduced in size, and no longer biologically active.

"Along with a commitment to explore and pioneer, comes a commitment to use the resources at our disposal fully, efficiently and responsibly," said Anne Meier, lead research engineer at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "Recycling in space and repurposing all or as much of the mass that we launch up to space is key for sustainable long-duration space travel. Waste conversion and volume reduction will free up volume for more science, more exploration, and is the heart of closing the loop on human spaceflight, and logistics reduction and reutilization."

To harness the recycling potential of the reactor, this challenge is seeking proposals for a unit that can function in microgravity with a receptacle component for depositing various types of waste into the unit and a feeder component capable of transferring the waste into the reactor through a small opening. Without these components, the crew would have to spend time processing trash and manually inserting it into the reactor instead of working on other higher priority tasks. By employing crowdsourcing, which has proven effective in previous challenges, it increases the likelihood of finding an innovative solution. Crowdsourcing allows NASA to harness a surge of creativity from external sources and augment ideas generated by the agency's workforce.

The Recycling in Space challenge compliments a similar initiative at the agency to increase innovation headed by the NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation and its NASA@WORK team. By using a new platform that enables employees across NASA to collaborate and share ideas on challenges posted to NASA@WORK, participants have already started proposing solutions for the inaugural challenge of developing an astronaut-friendly waste receptacle design.

NASA also is pursuing other methods of handling trash during deep space missions including reaching out to industry through the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships solicitation for prototype Trash Compaction and Processing System. Awards for the first phase of the public private partnership went to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) to develop systems that can reduce trash volume. They will have 18 months to develop and test their designs, before NASA conducts a preliminary design review (PDR). There will be a second phase focused on procurement after the PDR.

Since 2011, the NTL has used a variety of open innovation platforms to engage crowdsourcing communities in challenges to create the most innovative, efficient and optimal solutions for specific, real-world challenges faced by NASA and the federal government.

NineSigma North America Inc. helps organizations in the public, private and nonprofit sectors find new solutions, knowledge and partners to accelerate innovation, addressing problems of a global magnitude through its Grand Challenge innovation programs.

For more information about the challenge, and details on how to apply, visit https://9sig.co/NASA_RISC.

For more information about the NASA Tournament Lab, visit www.nasa.gov/coeci/ntl.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Recycling in Space: Waste Handling in a Microgravity Environment Challenge - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NASA, in partnership with NineSigma, is seeking new ideas to facilitate recycling in space, through a crowdsourcing challenge as part of the NASA Tournament

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Savannah Bullard

A new NASA competition, the LunaRecycle Challenge, is open and offering $3 million in prizes for innovations in recycling material waste on deep space missions.

As NASA continues efforts toward long-duration human space travel, including building a sustained human presence on the Moon through its Artemis missions, the agency needs novel solutions for processing inorganic waste streams like food packaging, discarded clothing, and science experiment materials. While previous efforts focused on the reduction of trash mass and volume, this challenge will prioritize technologies for recycling waste into usable products needed for off-planet science and exploration activities.

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will incentivize the design and development of energy-efficient, low-mass, and low-impact recycling solutions that address physical waste streams and improve the sustainability of longer-duration lunar missions. Through the power of open innovation, which draws on the public's ingenuity and creativity to find solutions, NASA can restructure the agency's approach to waste management, support the future of space travel, and revolutionize waste treatments on Earth, leading to greater sustainability on our home planet and beyond.

"Operating sustainably is an important consideration for NASA as we make discoveries and conduct research both away from home and on Earth," said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program. "With this challenge, we are seeking the public's innovative approaches to waste management on the Moon and aim to take lessons learned back to Earth for the benefit of all."

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will offer two competition tracks: a Prototype Build track and a Digital Twin track. The Prototype Build Track focuses on designing and developing hardware components and systems for recycling one or more solid waste streams on the lunar surface. The Digital Twin Track focuses on designing a virtual replica of a complete system for recycling solid waste streams on the lunar surface and manufacturing end products. Offering a Digital Twin track further lowers the barrier of entry for global solvers to participate in NASA Centennial Challenges and contribute to agency missions and initiatives.

Teams will have the opportunity to compete in either or both competition tracks, each of which will carry its own share of the prize purse.

The LunaRecycle Challenge also will address some of the aerospace community's top technical challenges. In July 2024, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate released a ranked list of 187 technology areas requiring further development to meet future exploration, science, and other mission needs. The results integrated inputs from NASA mission directorates and centers, industry organizations, government agencies, academia, and other interested individuals to help guide NASA's space technology development and investments. This list and subsequent updates will help inform future Centennial Challenges.

The three technological needs that LunaRecycle will address include logistics tracking, clothing, and trash management for habitation; in-space and on-surface manufacturing of parts and products; and in-space and on-surface manufacturing from recycled and reused materials.

"I am pleased that NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge will contribute to solutions pertaining to technological needs within advanced manufacturing and habitats," said Kim Krome, acting program manager for agency's Centennial Challenges, and challenge manager of LunaRecycle. "We are very excited to see what solutions our global competitors generate, and we are eager for this challenge to serve as a positive catalyst for bringing the agency, and humanity, closer to exploring worlds beyond our own."

NASA has contracted The University of Alabama to be the allied partner for the duration of the challenge. The university, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will coordinate with former Centennial Challenge winner AI Spacefactory to facilitate the challenge and manage its competitors.

To register in NASA's LunaRecyle Challenge - which includes submitting an idea or proposal - participants must complete the LunaReycle Challenge Expression of Interest form. Submissions sent via email will not be considered. For official challenge questions, contact lunarecycle@ua.edu or hq-stmd-centennialchallenges@mail.nasa.gov. For NASA media inquiries, see the contacts listed below.

NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge is led by the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, with support from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The competition is a NASA's Centennial Challenge, based at NASA Marshall. Centennial Challenges are part of NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

For more information on LunaRecycle, visit:

Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
321-432-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NASA Seeks Innovators for Lunar Waste Competition - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new NASA Lunar Waste competition, the LunaRecycle Challenge, is open and offering $3 million in prizes for innovations in recycling material waste on deep space missions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
JAXA Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Everyday Life on the ISS | JAXA Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get information on the Life in Space. Website of the Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Here’s how NASA treats astronauts who get sick in space

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Being around 200 miles from Earth means astronauts can’t just pop into the doctor’s office when they’re feeling ill.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research on the International Space Station is helping astronauts to prevent loss of bone and muscle tissue by using an exercise regimen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Food is also a problem. One person eats about 450 pounds of dehydrated food per year. A whole colony of people would require tons of food. The first thought that anyone on Earth would have is, "Grow the food on the moon." We think that way because here on Earth, chemicals like carbon and nitrogen are freely available in the atmosphere, and minerals are freely available in the Earth's soil. A ton of wheat is made up of a ton of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, potassium, phosphorous, and so on. To grow a ton of wheat, you'll have to import all the chemicals not readily available on the moon. Once the first crop is in, and as long as the colony's population is stable, then the chemicals can be reused in a natural cycle. The plant grows, a person eats it, and the person excretes it as solid waste, liquid waste and carbon dioxide in the breath. These waste products then nourish the next batch of plants. But you still have to get tons of food or chemicals to the moon to start the cycle.

In the shelter category, it's likely that the first shelters will be inflatable structures imported from Earth, but a lot of research has been done on the possibility of building structures from ceramics and metals created on the moon.

Power on the moon is an interesting challenge. It would probably be possible to manufacture solar cells on the moon, but sunlight is available only part of the time. As mentioned previously, hydrogen and oxygen can react in a fuel cell to create electricity. Nuclear power is another possibility, using uranium mined on the moon.

With all of this information, you can begin to see why there's not a colony on the moon right now -- it's complicated! But let's imagine that we wanted to create a 100-person self-sustaining colony on the moon. Let's further imagine that, to start the colony, the following was shipped to the moon per person:

The person him/herself -- 200 pounds

A starter pack of food (or chemicals to grow food) -- 500 pounds

Initial shelter and equipment -- 1,000 pounds

Manufacturing equipment -- 1,000 pounds

That's approximately 3,000 pounds per person and 300,000 pounds for the colony. When you realize that the space shuttle orbiter weighs 165,000 pounds without fuel, and you understand that the 100 people are going to live their entire lives on the moon off of the materials found in just two space shuttle orbiters, you realize how extremely optimistic this weight estimate is. At $50,000 per pound, that's $15 billion just for the shipping costs. By the time you factor in design, development, materials, training, people and administrative costs, as well as actual amounts of materials that have to be sent, not to mention the time and money that's been invested just to get the International Space Station into low-Earth orbit, you can see that even a small colony on the moon would cost hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

Maybe next year...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's safe to assume there won't be a moon colony any time soon. But it's still a tantalizing thought. But wouldn't it be cool to be able to live, vacation and work on the moon?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When the Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon, the dust that clung to their spacesuits made their throats sore and their eyes water. Lunar dust is made of sharp, abrasive and nasty particles, but how toxic is it for humans?

The "lunar hay fever", as NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt described it during the Apollo 17 mission created symptoms in all 12 people who have stepped on the Moon. From sneezing to nasal congestion, in some cases it took days for the reactions to fade. Inside the spacecraft, the dust smelt like burnt gunpowder.

The Moon missions left an unanswered question of lunar exploration - one that could affect humanity's next steps in the Solar System: can lunar dust jeopardise human health?

An ambitious ESA research programme with experts from around the planet is now addressing the issues related to lunar dust.

"We don't know how bad this dust is. It all comes down to an effort to estimate the degree of risk involved," says Kim Prisk, a pulmonary physiologist from the University of California with over 20 years of experience in human spaceflight - one of the 12 scientists taking part in ESA's research.

Nasty dust
Lunar dust has silicate in it, a material commonly found on planetary bodies with volcanic activity. Miners on Earth suffer from inflamed and scarred lungs from inhaling silicate. On the Moon, the dust is so abrasive that it ate away layers of spacesuit boots and destroyed the vacuum seals of Apollo sample containers.

Fine like powder, but sharp like glass. The low gravity of the Moon, one sixth of what we have on Earth, allows tiny particles to stay suspended for longer and penetrate more deeply into the lung.

"Particles 50 times smaller than a human hair can hang around for months inside your lungs. The longer the particle stays, the greater the chance for toxic effects," explains Kim.

The potential damage from inhaling this dust is unknown but research shows that lunar soil simulants can destroy lung and brain cells after long-term exposure.

Down to the particle

On Earth, fine particles tend to smoothen over years of erosion by wind and water, lunar dust however, is not round, but sharp and spiky.

In addition the Moon has no atmosphere and is constantly bombarded by radiation from the Sun that causes the soil to become electrostatically charged.

This charge can be so strong that the dust levitates above the lunar surface, making it even more likely to get inside equipment and people's lungs.
Dusty workplace
To test equipment and the behaviour of lunar dust, ESA will be working with simulated Moon dust mined from a volcanic region in Germany.

Working with the simulant is no easy feat. "The rarity of the lunar glass-like material makes it a special kind of dust. We need to grind the source material but that means removing the sharp edges," says Erin Tranfield, biologist and expert in dust toxicity.

The lunar soil does have a bright side. "You can heat it to produce bricks that can offer shelter for astronauts. Oxygen can be extracted from the soil to sustain human missions on the Moon," explains science advisor Aidan Cowley.

This week ESA is hosting a workshop on lunar resources at the European Space Research Technology Centre in the Netherlands, meanwhile in space ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is running a session of the Airway Monitoring experiment to monitor lung health in reduced gravity - preparing for a sustainable return to our nearest neighbour in the Solar System.

Thank you for liking

You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When the Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon, the dust that clung to their spacesuits made their throats sore and their eyes water. Lunar dust is made of sharp, abrasive and nasty particles, but how toxic is it for humans?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A major medical emergency has never occurred on the International Space Station - but what would happen if it did? And what lessons could be learnt for treating similar emergencies on Earth?

When Tim Peake blasted into orbit in December, he knew that the 40 hours of medical training he'd received would prepare him for most health problems during his six-month stay on the International Space Station.

In addition to life-saving skills, he had been taught how to stitch a wound, give an injection and even extract a tooth.

According to Nasa, this training would prepare him and his crew members for the most common medical problems faced on the ISS - like motion sickness, headaches, back pain, skin conditions, burns and dental emergencies.

But faced with a far more serious medical emergency - what would they do?

Limited options

The medical kit on the ISS is basic. It contains a first aid kit, a large book of medical conditions and some useful medical equipment including a defibrillator, a portable ultrasound, a device for looking deep into the eye and two litres of saline.

Although their lightweight ultrasound device can generate very clear pictures of the inside of the human body, and relay them to a medical team back on Earth for help with diagnosis, there would be no means of fixing the underlying problem on the ISS.

Dr David Green, senior lecturer in aerospace physiology at Kings College London, says a better option would be to return the patient to Earth in the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the ISS, a journey of around three-and-a-half hours. But that's far from straightforward.

"They have limited resources on the ISS but there are no life support facilities on Soyuz either. If it's a good flight back they could experience a g-force of 4g-5g on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. That's pretty unpleasant for a healthy individual, never mind someone who's critically ill."

The health and fitness of all astronauts is very closely monitored in the months before launch by a flight surgeon who looks after them and their family before, during and after their six-month stay on the ISS.

In a control centre on the ground, a team is constantly monitoring the astronauts, collecting data on everything from the exercise they are doing to what they are eating.

As a result, Dr Green says, the risk of an astronaut developing a serious illness and needing intensive care is very small, but it is still around 1% to 2% per person per year.

So it is likely to happen sooner or later.

Look to the skies

The challenges of coping with serious medical emergencies are not just confined to the ISS.

Dr Fred Papali, who works in critical care medicine at the University of Maryland, US, and has spent time working in emergency wards in hospitals in Haiti and south Sudan, says there are lessons to be learnt for many remote, rural regions on Earth.

He sees parallels between the isolation of the ISS and some rural areas in low-income countries, where health care services are lacking.

"In many parts of the world, basic emergency and acute medical facilities just don't exist. It's challenging because the doctors there don't have experience or training... and patients are often clinging on to life with their pinky."

He has witnessed how hospitals with no running water and no electricity saved lives using ultrasound to make quick diagnoses in medical emergencies.

"It's a simple and revolutionary technology which can look more deeply," he says.

Dr Papali also says that the use of telemedicine - the remote treatment of patients by a doctor using an electronic video or audio link, which is so vital in space - should be more widespread in the developing world.

When an internet connection is all that is needed in a remote location to dial up an experienced doctor to ask for advice or to access information, "very cheap interventions can make a difference between life and death".

It is no real surprise that aerospace technology can benefit communities in disaster zones, in high-altitude areas, and in remote and isolated villages on terra firma.

Their needs are very similar. Medical devices in space must be small, light, robust, smart and low in power consumption. The same is true in remote regions.

So Nasa and the European Space Agency have made it their business to share the benefits of any innovations in aerospace technology with the wider medical and science community.

Training people to use the technology correctly is important too. Just as Tim Peake has been trained to use medical equipment and act like a space paramedic, similar training can be given to people in areas where there are shortages of doctors and healthcare workers, for example in sub-Saharan Africa.

To boldly go...

As manned space missions are planned to the Moon, Mars and beyond, the need to improve emergency medical care in space increases even more.

Making a qualified doctor part of the crew might help with the problem of dealing with medical emergencies thousands of miles from home. It worked for the crew of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek. But would carrying out emergency surgery in space be realistic?

At present, operations would be impractical in micro gravity because blood and fluids would leak out of the patient's body (which is three-quarters water), float around, infect other astronauts and contaminate the spacecraft.

Scientists in the US have been testing the idea of placing a transparent dome over a wound and then filling it with fluid, such as saline solution, to stem the blood flow. It could stop the bleeding or give a surgeon time to seal the wound.

Nasa is also planning to turn robots into space surgeons. The Robonaut 2 is already on board the ISS and the aim is that it performs basic medical functions which can be remotely controlled from Earth. Eventually the hope is that it could be programmed to carry out complicated surgery - but this is still some way off.

On long-duration space missions there would be a need for smarter medical devices, medications with a much longer shelf life and more extensive medical training.

It's a long way to Mars, and with a time delay of about 20 minutes each way when communicating with Earth, speedy medical advice won't be possible.

Space medicine experts have their work cut out - but you wouldn't bet against them coming up with an innovative solution which could benefit everyone.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to deal with a medical emergency on the Space Station

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A major medical emergency has never occurred on the International Space Station - but what would happen if it did? And what lessons could be learnt for treating similar emergencies on Earth? When Tim Peake blasted into orbit in December, he knew that the 40 hours of medical training he'd received would prepare him for most health problems during his six-month stay on the International Space Station.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Risk of behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The prolonged isolation and confinement that astronauts face in space can increase risks of behavioral issues and psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With the Artemis missions, NASA plans to send a crewed mission to the moon in a few years' time, and will eventually establish a base camp at the lunar South Pole for longer expeditions. Meanwhile, Elon Musk claims that SpaceX will send a crew to Mars in 2029.

But any long-term space mission will face numerous challenges - not just technical, but also psychological. Astronauts will have to spend weeks or months in small confines with just a few fellow crew members, isolated from the rest of humanity. So it will be important to predict how this experience might affect astronauts' mental health - and whether there are particular activities that could protect against any negative effects.

This was one of the aims of the LUNARK project, the results of which were published recently in Acta Astronautica. Two men in their 20s spent 61 days living in a specially constructed habitat in Northern Greenland, designed to mimic the conditions astronauts would experience in a base on the moon. The participants had to cope with outside temperatures as low as -30°c and a month of complete darkness, and had no contact with the outside world other than sending short daily messages back home.

Each day, the participants had tasks to complete such as conducting experiments or gathering ice for water, but also had downtime to relax or socialise together. And at the end of most days, they filled in questionnaires about how they were feeling. These asked about negative emotions they might have experienced, how much they desired social contact, how lonely they felt, whether they felt time was passing faster or slower than normal, and the extent to which they experienced "resignation" (this includes feelings of detachment and helplessness). The two "astronauts" also reported on the time spent performing various kinds of activities that day, such as chatting, sleeping, eating, writing, and watching TV shows.

It was the results of these surveys that Paolo Riva from the University of Milano-Bicocca and team were interested in. In their new paper, the researchers report that both participants displayed an increased desire for social contact as the mission progressed, though they didn't show any increase in negative emotions or feelings of resignation. Past work has found that isolation and ostracism can lead to the experience of resignation, but the team suggests that this didn't occur on the mission because the participants had willingly put themselves into this position. However, the team did find that feelings of resignation on one day were associated with feelings of resignation the next, suggesting these feelings can have a lingering effect - which could make them harder to counter when they do occur.

Certain activities seemed to mitigate negative emotional experiences. More time spent talking to the other participant about personal matters or taking part in leisure activities was related to reduced feelings of resignation. Leisure activities also made it feel like time was running faster. Talking about personal matters and exercising both also fostered a desire for social contact (a need which could be challenging to fulfil in extreme isolation, but which is presumably better than social withdrawal).

The researchers conclude astronauts might not experience the same negative consequences as those who are in prison, say, or who have been socially excluded. That's because they willingly sign up for space missions, and have a clear end date for their expeditions. But there is still clearly the potential for negative psychological effects, and their study suggests some ways to counteract these. In particular, physical exercise, leisure activities, and chatting with each other about matters unrelated to the mission all seem to promote wellbeing.

It's interesting that the two participants had quite different emotional experiences: one generally reported more negative feelings than the other, for example, and felt that time was going slower than normal while the other felt it was going faster. This gets to a key limitation of the study: this is ultimately an experiment with a sample size of just two people, which really limits the generalisability of the findings. It's also worth pointing out that the participants had known each other for a long time (in fact, they were co-founders of the company that made the habitat), so their experience might not be reflected in pairs or groups of people with different social dynamics.

Still, it's a fascinating set-up for a psychology study - and until we get the chance to study astronauts on the moon, this is the perhaps next best thing.

Further reading

- Social isolation in space: An investigation of LUNARK, the first human mission in an Arctic Moon analog habitat

About the author

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Moon mission simulation explores how isolation affects astronauts' wellbeing | BPS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The next decade promises to be an exciting one for space travel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NASA HH&P Capability - Behavioral Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just as spaceflight can challenge the limits of the human body, it also can be psychologically taxing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How astronauts take care of their mental health in space

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the solutions that exist for astronauts to feel less lonely and take care of their mental health in space.

# data[].attributes.headline
Can VR help astronauts with mental health?

# data[].attributes.subject
Can VR help astronauts with mental health?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many studies on the space station work to characterize and understand mental well-being effects and others try out new technologies and practices to help counter them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When NASA sends the first astronauts to explore near the lunar South Pole, moonwalkers will wear spacesuits provided by Axiom Space. NASA selected the company to develop the modern suits for the Artemis III mission and participated in activities when the first prototype was revealed Wednesday during an event at Space Center Houston in Texas.

Helping take a step forward in the agency's goal to build a robust economy at the Moon by working with commercial service providers, Axiom Space hosted the event for students and media to ask questions and get a close-up look at the spacesuit.

"NASA's partnership with Axiom is critical to landing astronauts on the Moon and continuing American leadership in space. Building on NASA's years of research and expertise, Axiom's next generation spacesuits will not only enable the first woman to walk on the Moon, but they will also open opportunities for more people to explore and conduct science on the Moon than ever before," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Our partnership is investing in America, supporting America's workers, and demonstrating another example of America's technical ingenuity that will position NASA and the commercial space sector to compete - and win - in the 21st century."

Artemis III will land astronauts, including the first woman, on the Moon to advance long-term lunar exploration and scientific discovery, and inspire the Artemis Generation. NASA selected Axiom Space to deliver the moonwalking system, including the spacesuit, for the mission. Called the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU, the spacesuit builds on NASA's spacesuit prototype developments and incorporates the latest technology, enhanced mobility, and added protection from hazards at the Moon.

NASA chose to use a commercial services contract for development of the new spacesuit, whereby NASA purchases moonwalking services from Axiom Space. Under this model, the company is encouraged to pursue other commercial customers for their moonwalking services. This mutually beneficial approach helps bolster an emerging commercial market and grants NASA the right to use the data and technologies developed under the contract for future exploration efforts.

"NASA is leading the way in enabling a growing space economy by leveraging industry capabilities and NASA's expertise to provide moonwalking services as safely, effectively, and efficiently as possible," said Lara Kearney, manager of NASA's Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility program.

NASA established the foundation for the AxEMU with the agency's Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) prototype development efforts that advanced spacesuit designs for multiple destinations. Axiom Space used the experience, expertise, and data behind the xEMU as a basis for the design and development of the AxEMU, including advancements in technology, training, astronaut feedback on comfort and maneuverability, and compatibility with other NASA systems. Leaning on NASA's prior development efforts is helping Axiom Space reduce technical and schedule risk.

NASA experts defined the technical and safety standards by which the spacesuits will be built, and Axiom Space agreed to meet these key agency requirements. The AxEMU features the range of motion and flexibility needed to explore more of the lunar landscape, and the suit will fit a broad range of crew members, accommodating at least 90 percent of the US male and female population. Axiom Space will continue to apply modern technological innovations in life support systems, pressure garments, and avionics as development continues.

Axiom Space is responsible for the design, development, qualification, certification, and production of flight training spacesuits and support equipment, including tools, to enable the Artemis III mission. The company will test the suit in a spacelike environment prior to the mission. NASA maintains the authority for astronaut training, mission planning, and approval of the service systems.

Following Artemis III, the agency will compete future Artemis mission services under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract. NASA is using the contract to meet the agency's spacewalking needs for both the Moon and the International Space Station. The agency recently awarded a task order to Collins Aerospace, who is also competing within the xEVAS contract, to develop new spacesuits for astronauts to wear during spacewalks on the space station. Both vendors will compete for future spacewalking and moonwalking services task orders.

Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare for future astronaut missions to Mars.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spacesuit for NASA's Artemis III Moon Surface Mission Debuts - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When NASA sends the first astronauts to explore near the lunar South Pole, moonwalkers will wear spacesuits provided by Axiom Space. NASA selected the company

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NASA Successfully Extracts Oxygen from Lunar Soil Simulant - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As NASA works towards sending astronauts to the Moon through Artemis missions, one of the agency’s primary goals is to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface. Resources like oxygen are crucial building blocks for making that vision a reality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The sustainability of the Artemis program and its goal of developing a permanent human presence on the Moon is dependent on the ability to utilize in-situ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inside a giant sphere, the engineers pored over their equipment. Before them stood a silvery metal contraption swathed in colourful wires - a box that they hope will one day make oxygen on the moon.

Once the team vacated the sphere, the experiment began. The box-like machine was now ingesting small quantities of a dusty regolith - a mixture of dust and sharp grit with a chemical composition mimicking real lunar soil.

Soon, that regolith was gloop. A layer of it heated to temperatures above 1,650C. And, with the addition of some reactants, oxygen-containing molecules began to bubble out.

"We've tested everything we can on Earth now," says Brant White, a program manager at Sierra Space, a private company. "The next step is going to the moon."

Sierra Space's experiment unfolded at Nasa's Johnson Space Center this summer. It is far from the only such technology that researchers are working on, as they develop systems that could supply astronauts living on a future lunar base.

Those astronauts will need oxygen to breathe but also to make rocket fuel for spacecraft that might launch from the moon and head to destinations further afield - including Mars.

Lunar base inhabitants might also require metal and they could even harvest this from the dusty grey debris that litters the lunar surface.

Much depends on whether we can build reactors able to extract such resources effectively or not.

"It could save billions of dollars from mission costs," says Mr White as he explains that the alternative - bringing lots of oxygen and spare metal to the moon from Earth - would be arduous and expensive.

Luckily, the lunar regolith is full of metal oxides. But while the science of extracting oxygen from metal oxides, for example, is well understood on Earth, doing this on the moon is much harder. Not least because of the conditions.

The huge spherical chamber that hosted Sierra Space's tests in July and August this year induced a vacuum and also simulated lunar temperatures and pressures.

The company says it has had to improve how the machine works over time so that it can better cope with the extremely jagged, abrasive texture of the regolith itself. "It gets everywhere, wears out all sorts of mechanisms," says Mr White.

And the one, crucial, thing that you can't test on Earth or even in orbit around our planet, is lunar gravity - which is roughly one sixth that of the Earth. It might not be until 2028 or later that Sierra Space can test its system on the moon, using real regolith in low gravity conditions.

The moon's gravity could be a real problem for some oxygen-extracting technologies unless engineers design for it, says Paul Burke at Johns Hopkins University.

In April, he and colleagues published a paper detailing the results of computer simulations that showed how a different oxygen-extracting process might be hindered by the moon's relatively feeble gravitational pull. The process under investigation here was molten regolith electrolysis, which involves using electricity to split lunar minerals containing oxygen, in order to extract the oxygen directly.

The problem is that such technology works by forming bubbles of oxygen on the surface of electrodes deep within the molten regolith itself. "It is the consistency of, say, honey. It is very, very viscous," says Dr Burke.

"Those bubbles aren't going to rise as fast - and may actually be delayed from detaching from the electrodes."

There could be ways around this. One could be to vibrate the oxygen-making machine device, which might jiggle the bubbles free.

And extra-smooth electrodes might make it easier for the oxygen bubbles to detach. Dr Burke and his colleagues are now working on ideas like this.

Sierra Space's technology, a carbothermal process, is different. In their case, when oxygen-containing bubbles form in the regolith, they do so freely, rather than on the surface of an electrode. It means there is less chance of them getting stuck, says Mr White.

Stressing the value of oxygen for future lunar expeditions, Dr Burke estimates that, per day, an astronaut would require the amount of oxygen contained in roughly two or three kilograms of regolith, depending on that astronaut's fitness and activity levels.

However, a lunar base's life support systems would likely recycle oxygen breathed out by astronauts. If so, it wouldn't be necessary to process quite as much regolith just to keep the lunar residents alive.

The real use case for oxygen-extracting technologies, adds Dr Burke, is in providing the oxidiser for rocket fuels, which could enable ambitious space exploration.

Obviously the more resources that can be made on the moon the better.

Sierra Space's system does require the addition of some carbon, though the firm says it can recycle most of this after each oxygen-producing cycle.

Along with colleagues, Palak Patel, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came up with an experimental molten regolith electrolysis system, for extracting oxygen and metal from the lunar soil.

"We're really looking at it from the standpoint of, 'Let's try to minimise the number of resupply missions'," she says.

When designing their system, Ms Patel and her colleagues addressed the problem described by Dr Burke: that low gravity could impede the detachment of oxygen bubbles that form on electrodes. To counter this, they used a "sonicator", which blasts the bubbles with sound waves in order to dislodge them.

Ms Patel says that future resource-extracting machines on the moon could derive iron, titanium or lithium from regolith, for example. These materials might help lunar-dwelling astronauts make 3D-printed spare parts for their moon base or replacement components for damaged spacecraft.

The usefulness of lunar regolith does not stop there. Ms Patel notes that, in separate experiments, she has melted simulated regolith into a tough, dark, glass-like material.

She and colleagues worked out how to turn this substance into strong, hollow bricks, which could be useful for building structures on the moon - an imposing black monolith, say. Why not?

More Technology of Business

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Space exploration: How to make moon dust into oxygen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Engineers are working on systems that can turn lunar regolith into useful elements like oxygen.

# data[].attributes.headline
How will we keep our mental health stable?

# data[].attributes.subject
How will we keep our mental health stable?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could you live on the moon? - Alex Gendler

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY – Space Colonization 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Life In a Lunar Colony Will Be Like

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Artemis Astronauts Plan to Grow Plants on the Moon | WIRED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How do you grow plants in space? | BBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Can Moon Colonies Get Oxygen From the...Moon?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How NASA Plans To Build The First Moon Base!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Season 5, Episode 26: How to Grow Food on the Moon - NASA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Space botanists are working on strategies to grow crops on the lunar surface, as NASA makes strides toward sending astronauts to the Moon through the Artemis program.