Extracting water from lunar soil

A team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has found a way to extract water from lunar soil samples, which were brought back to Earth by the Chang'e 5 probe in 2020.

According to Xinhua, after three years of in-depth research and repeated testing, the research team discovered that minerals in the lunar soil contain large reserves of hydrogen due to exposure to solar wind for millions of years. When heated at temperatures above 1,000 ⁰ C, hydrogen will participate in a chemical reaction with iron oxide in the minerals, resulting in the formation of simple iron and a large amount of water after evaporation.

After conducting many experiments, scientists discovered that 51-76 milligrams of water can be obtained from 1 gram of lunar soil. Thus, 1 ton of lunar soil can produce 51-76 kg of water (equivalent to 100 500 ml bottles). This amount of water can be supplied to 50 people/day. Xinhua News Agency commented that this discovery could play an important role in the construction of a research station on the Moon.

PEARL

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/chiet-xuat-nuoc-tu-dat-mat-trang-post755493.html