ENGS 89/90 Reports

Year of Graduation

2025

Project Advisor

Hélène Seroussi

Instructor

Solomon Diamond

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Permanent lunar habitation faces considerable challenges, including the availability of consumable resources for fuel and construction. Sourcing these raw materials from Earth represents a significant cost to future missions, reducing the capacity for equipment and personnel. Toward the goal of permanent settlements on the Moon, it is not enough to simply produce materials from lunar regolith. We must achieve industrial-scale production of oxygen, iron, silicates, and other materials on the lunar surface, comparable to the terrestrial extraction industries. Molten Salt Electrolysis (MSE) has the potential to extract oxygen from lunar regolith at scale. The process of MSE has been experimentally proven to have a 96% oxygen yield in lab testing in conditions that are reproducible within Dartmouth facilities.1 We developed an experimentation environment and investigated the scalability of the different components in this process, from the recyclability of the molten salts to the life expectancy of crucibles and the efficiency of the anodes. For an industrial-scale process on the Moon, minimizing resupply missions will be explored by reusing salt, crucibles, anodes, and cathodes. This contribution includes our experimental setup, results, and scalability analysis. Our results demonstrate a successful removal of oxygen from the lunar regolith simulant, however, they also highlight some shortcomings of MSE as a scalable option. In addition, we share our decision-making process that led to our pursuit of MSE over other proven extraction methods of oxygen from lunar regolith.

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