Powder producer Metalysis says that it has successfully extracted oxygen from replicated moonrock (lunar regolith) containing aluminium, silicon, and oxygen.
This is part of the company’s plan to develop an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) process which makes it possible to extract oxygen and usable metal powders on the moon at the same time. The process could also be used to make parts such as medical prosthesis, vehicle, and aviation lightweighting, electronics, magnetic materials in situ on Earth.
Metalysis has also produced a multi-kilogram batch of metal powder from the lunar regolith, the first time the metal powder by-product has been produced in these quantities, the company said. The powder can be used in additive manufacturing (AM), both for space infrastructure development and in-situ equipment manufacturing.
This story uses material from Metalysis, with editorial changes made by Materials Today.