Description: Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE) is a technology developed to produce oxygen and metals from raw regolith on the surface of the moon or Mars. It is capable of processing regolith of any lunar mineral composition solely with the use of in-situ power. The reactor first melts the metal oxide regolith powder and then passes current through the formed melt in order to separate the metal atoms from the oxygen atoms, which are collected at their respective electrodes. The passing of current through the melt also serves to produce heat via joule heating of the electrically resistive regolith melt. The produced heat sustains the temperature of the regolith melt throughout the electrolysis process. The reactor separates the metals in the regolith based on the breakdown voltage of the individual components of the regolith, meaning iron is produced before silicon which is produced before aluminum and so on. As metals are collected at the cathode of the reactor, they remain in a molten state and can be extracted from the reactor through a variety of methods. Likewise, as the produced oxygen is formed on the anode, the gas will rise to the top of the reactor and be pumped out to be collected. This project is aiming to study the impact of environmental conditions (low gravity, vacuum) on the performance of subsystems and the integrated system. This development effort of the technology aims at testing an integrated MRE reactor at relevant scale in vacuum. It will focus on developing the functionality of the MRE reactor through subsytem development, testing and integration for system testing the TRL of 4, and preparing MRE for future maturation culminating in a potential lunar surface demonstration mission supporting the Artemis program. For this GCD project, further design and testing of the MRE system will include electrolytic system components, integration of the oxygen measurement mechanism, regolith loading mechanism, and reactor process control.

Benefits: Oxygen and metals production on the lunar surface will be part of essential infrastructure for sustained human activities and the emergence of cis-lunar economic activity. This project will retire major technological risks and deliver systems engineering analysis at MRE production scales. A complete and fully functioning MRE reactor system will provide a complete, automated capability that transforms raw regolith into metals and oxygen to meet mission needs for prolonged human presence on the moon and Mars. The oxygen produced will provide human life support and propellant supply, as well as metals for construction materials on the moon and Mars. This project represents an increase in TRL of the MRE reactor and another step for Lunar Resources, inc toward a fully integrated system that would be capable of a lunar surface demonstration. The company will be using the results of this project as well as other projects to propose further tech development.