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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
Molten regolith electrolysis (MRE) is a promising method to produce oxygen from lunar regolith (soil) on the lunar surface. Lunar regolith is nearly 50% oxygen by weight and MRE can use electricity to separate oxygen from other elements, such as Si, Fe, etc. However, MRE requires extremely high temperatures up to 1600C, which is similar to the temperature inside of a jet engine, to melt the regolith and function correctly. Due to the need for electricity to perform MRE, metals have traditionally been used as electrodes for their electrical conductivity. The metals used in MRE are susceptible to corrosion at these elevated temperatures. Ceramics are much more resistant to corrosion at high temperatures but are typically electrical insulators, so they cannot perform the MRE process as a metal can. The proposed research will investigate if a specific type of conductive ceramic (magnesia-stabilized zirconia) can be used as a protective shell around the metal to protect it from corrosion while still allowing MRE to work. The proposed design is a ceramic tube filled with metal foam. The ceramic tube will be dipped into the molten regolith, but oxygen can still be generated from the metal foam due to the conductive properties of the ceramic. This has the additional benefit of generating oxygen away from the molten regolith so that the gas is easily pumped into a collection vessel. The primary goal of this work is to show that this ceramic tube, metal foam design works to perform MRE but lasts significantly longer than the traditional metals used. A breakthrough in this area would enable oxygen to be generated on the moon, which is key to establishing a permanent human moon base.
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