NASA Offers Reward for Extracting O2 from Moondust

DoubleWhopper writes "Break out the duct tape and paper clips. NASA has announced a $250,000 reward to the "first team of scientists to invent a way to extract breathable oxygen from lunar soil". Wired reports, "Inventors who attempt the Moon Regolith Oxygen (or MoonROx) challenge will have just eight hours to extract at least 11 pounds of breathable oxygen from a simulated form of lunar soil.""

Comments

Re:Lunar Patent Office?

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Congratulations on the Insightful mod point. On Slashdot, when talking about patents, that is certification that you don't know what you're talking about. Notice my mod points were informative because my comments were based on information. Just an observation.

If you'd like to refute that you don't have a clue, pick one of those patents and explain to me how the USPTO issued it without complying with the laws created by Congress or the case law created by judges. The notion that the USPTO promotes bogus statutes is, with all due respect, retarded. Do police officers "promote" the statutes against murder? No, they execute the law to the best of their ability. The USPTO is part of the executive branch of the government.

If you don't believe those facts based in reality, I'll find you a 3rd grade social studies textbook that will explain the separation of powers.

But seriously, I'd love it if you showed me that you know what you're talking about by discussing one of those patents you linked. Of course, I'm clearly baiting you into looking like a dumbass, but you'll have to ask yourself with whom the blame for that truly lies.