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NASA Considers Building an Oxygen Pipeline at the Moon's South Pole

NASA is considering using an oxygen pipeline to efficiently transport oxygen to various locations around the lunar south pole for upcoming Artemis missions.

It comes after Peter Curreri, chief scientist at Lunar Resources Inc., detailed problems with NASA's existing plans to transport oxygen using rovers.

Curreri submitted a proposal to the space agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program and he was one of 14 research groups that received $175 in funding to develop their concepts.

NASA's lunar pipeline concept could make life easier for future Artemis astronauts

The proposed lunar pipeline, officially named the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (LSPOP), will connect to NASA's lunar ice mining facility at the lunar south pole. NASA, China and Russia are targeting the south pole of the moon due to the fact that it contains a huge amount of ice and other resources just below the surface of the moon.

This ice will be an important part of NASA's plans to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, as it can be extracted and turned into drinking water and oxygen that can be used for breathing, as well as rocket fuel.

In a recent statement posted on NASA's website, Curreri wrote that "current funded efforts to extract oxygen in situ consist of bottling oxygen into pressurized gas cylinders or liquefying it and storing it in Dewars. Either approach requires the transport of tanks or dewars for various purposes. The process of transporting this oxygen in rovers is more energy intensive than the extraction process and is considered the MOST costly aspect of obtaining oxygen in situ for use on the Moon, given the long distances the mining area will be. from a human habitat or a liquefaction plant."

In other words, NASA plans to store ice in cryogenic pressure vessels and transport it in lunar rovers. They will likely have to transport the ice to a region closer to the Moon's equator, as lunar habitats will also require the additional sunlight that the region can provide.

In the meantime, Curreri's lunar pipeline concept will provide continued access to oxygen for lunar settlers. It will also allow this to be done at the same time as drastically reducing costs that would otherwise be associated with transportation. Unlike pipelines on Earth, a leak on the Moon does not pollute the environment. Instead, oxygen will simply escape into space, since the moon has no atmosphere.

Building Infrastructure on the Moon

Lunar Resources will be testing several different lunar pipeline prototypes, although it starts with a roughly 3 mile (5 km) concept. In a statement, Carreri wrote that “Our original concept is a 5 km pipeline to transport oxygen gas from an oxygen production source, such as our Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE) facility or any other source, to oxygen storage/liquefaction. plant near the moon base."

If NASA eventually green-lights LSPOP for its Artemis lunar missions, it will be produced in segments on the Moon before being assembled at full length. The pipeline will most likely be made of aluminum, which is plentiful at the south pole of the moon.

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