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NASA Offers Reward for Extracting O2 from Moondust

Posted by timothy on from the what-about-non-breathable-air dept.

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.""

4 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. In related news... by Robotdog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maiden offers first child for someone to spin gold from straw.

  2. Re:NASA's budget cuts are starting to show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's 11 pounds in British currency, I presume.

  3. Re:NASA's budget cuts are starting to show by Dinosaur+Neil · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, the challenge is for 5kg (mass) of O2, but the units just got dumbed down for those who don't to metric. Extracting O2 from soil is done all the time on Earth, we just tend to treat the oxygen as an unnecessary byproduct while we keep the useful things (e.g. most metals); this will probbably not be "the biggest invention in human history"...

    --
    "I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
  4. Re:I'll top that... by fireboy1919 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The sad thing about that is that the new gold is so fantastically radioactive. And when it stops being radioactive?

    You guessed it.

    It's back to being lead.

    It's the real-life equivalent of fairy gold.

    --
    Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!