One Small Breath For Man

An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times reports on a new technique that may allow Oxygen to be wrung from the soil on the moon. This may pave the way for a moonbase, and allow permanent habitation on Earth's only natural satellite." From the article: "Lunar soil brought back to Earth is in short supply and highly prized, so Nasa researchers have been using matter with the same composition for its tests. The soil contains about 45 per cent oxygen by weight, but it is mostly 'trapped' in the form of silicon dioxide ... At the moment, all oxygen supplies would have to be brought from Earth, which is so expensive and energy-inefficient that it effectively rules out a permanent Moon base. "

Comments

Re:forgot to add

[1u3hr]

Explain to me how to make oxygen out of it. Cause the article sure doesn't!

Try reading it.

Re:Can this article be even more pretentios?

[Anonymous Coward]

What would silicone dioxide be? I can't quite see how to create any such thing without modifying the -Si-O- backbone, and then it really wouldn't still be a silicone, would it?

You should have said silicon dioxide of course, and maybe you even knew what was right (at least if you thought about it), but the fact you spelled it the way so many people mispronounce it makes me wonder.

Gravity?

[localman]

I figure this oxygen would be stored inside a sealed moonbase. But I'm curious if the moon has enough gravity to hold an atmosphere?

Cheers.