Israeli Company Intends to Produce Oxygen on Moon

Israeli space company Helios has gone into partnership with Florida-based Eta Space to create and store oxygen on the Moon.

Helios has previously developed an electrochemical reactor capable of extracting oxygen from lunar regolith (a mixture of soil, powdery dust and broken rock on the lunar surface). This will enable future lunar colonies to solve the issue of fuel and other resources and reduce the cost of long-term lunar missions.

Helios will apply Eta Space's expertise in cryogenic technology to produce oxygen. The companies intend to build an oxygen production and liquefaction plant on the Moon.

This would help save money for future lunar missions, which require huge amounts of oxygen used as rocket fuel, as its shipping to the Moon is too expensive. 1 kilogram of cargo costs several hundred thousand dollars.

Helios obtains oxygen by melting lunar soil at 1.600 degrees and using electrolysis. The extracted oxygen can be stored for further use. The company has simulated most of the conditions on the Moon using lunar-like sand developed by the University of Central Florida from samples brought back from the Moon.

Helios has agreed with European technology corporation OHB SE to send its technology to the Moon aboard the lunar landing system LSAS (Lunar Surface Access Service), which will carry out missions starting in 2025.

Helios is funded by the Israeli Space Agency and the Ministry of Energy, and last month the company received $6 million in seed funding rounds.