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SA man makes moon magic
News24.com ^ | 2004-12-14 | Tisha Steyn

Posted on 12/15/2004 2:50:30 PM PST by Junior

Cape Town - A South African chemical engineer has come up with a way to produce liquid oxygen from lunar rock.

This process would make it feasible to establish permanent manned bases on the moon sometime in the future.

US space agency Nasa has made available R82m to further develop the process devised by Shaan Oosthuizen, 28, who works for British Titanium in Cambridge.

Oosthuizen is a co-inventor of the Ilmenox process, named after the process' ability to produce oxygen from the lunar mineral ilmenite.

The process exctracts oxygen from moonrock, which are metal-oxides that may contain up to 30 or 40% oxygen.

By means of electro-chemical equipment, which has now been patented, the oxygen and the metal in the moonrock are split.

Oosthuizen said sand samples from Namakwa Sands has successfully been used in experiments to produce titanium metal and potentially oxygen.

"Apollo missions have shown that the relevant minerals found on the moon are notably similar to those found on earth, and it is not necessary to bring lunar rock home to experiment with."

The Nasa funding would be used over the next four years to develop equipment for the viable processing of lunar rock, with the aim to produce rocket propellant on the moon on a large scale.

Oxygen extracted in this way could, for instance, be remixed with hydrogen to form water, and eventually it might be viable to support sustained exploration of the moon.

Oosthuizen expected to work "on both sides of the Atlantic" on the process, as some of his research would be done at a Nasa base in the US.


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: moon; space

1 posted on 12/15/2004 2:50:30 PM PST by Junior
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To: Junior

cool


2 posted on 12/15/2004 2:52:57 PM PST by Mr. K ((this space for rent))
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To: RadioAstronomer; PatrickHenry; VadeRetro

Thought y'all might find this interesting.


3 posted on 12/15/2004 2:57:00 PM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: Junior

Sounds like an old computer game where you search for moon crystals.


4 posted on 12/15/2004 3:05:27 PM PST by DrewsDad
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To: Junior

Right. Wake me up when tickets get down to $19.99.


5 posted on 12/15/2004 3:13:13 PM PST by thegreatbeast (Quid lucrum istic mihi est?)
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To: Junior

Could we use this technology to make the Moon a bigger lamp post that what it is? To set fire to the dark side?


6 posted on 12/15/2004 3:21:36 PM PST by Deguello
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To: Junior

Ya'll been sniffin' rocks?


7 posted on 12/15/2004 3:45:49 PM PST by wizr (Afghanistan, the new Eden?)
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To: Junior

Lots of watts needed to separate oxygen from titanium!


8 posted on 12/15/2004 3:51:31 PM PST by dr huer
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To: Junior

Yes, interesting. I haven't found any mention of this at the NASA site. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place.


9 posted on 12/15/2004 3:55:20 PM PST by PatrickHenry (The List-O-Links for evolution threads is at my freeper homepage.)
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To: Junior

I can't find any other news story that mentions this guy's name. So this is either exceptionally hot news, or it's some kind of joke.


10 posted on 12/15/2004 3:58:13 PM PST by PatrickHenry (The List-O-Links for evolution threads is at my freeper homepage.)
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To: dr huer
Lots of watts needed to separate oxygen from titanium!

True, but if one sent up a probe to start processing the ore using solar power, then given enough time it might be able to produce a useful amount of oxygen. Provided that adequate measures are in place to ensure that the thing is actually working, it would seem like every pound of oxygen it could generate prior to the next manned mission would be one less pound of payload needed (which translates into many pounds' reduction in launch weight).

11 posted on 12/15/2004 4:59:58 PM PST by supercat (To call the Constitution a 'living document' is to call a moth-infested overcoat a 'living garment'.)
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To: KevinDavis
Ping!
12 posted on 12/16/2004 11:24:35 AM PST by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: RightWhale; Brett66; xrp; gdc314; sionnsar; anymouse; RadioAstronomer; NonZeroSum; jimkress; ...

13 posted on 12/16/2004 5:07:16 PM PST by KevinDavis (Let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us will explore the stars!)
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To: Junior

Oxygen is not the stumbling block. The moon is 1/3 oxygen.


14 posted on 12/16/2004 6:07:02 PM PST by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: dr huer
Lots of watts needed to separate oxygen from titanium!

That's the beauty of it; without an atmosphere to diffuse the light, solar energy is a lot more efficient on the Moon. The whole place is bathed in watts.

15 posted on 12/16/2004 7:09:02 PM PST by transhumanist (Science must trump superstition)
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