How engineers are creating oxygen for future moon missions from material found on the moon

In groundbreaking experiments, carbothermal reduction fuels new possibilities for sustaining life and fueling spacecraft far from Earth.

Space engineers now know how to make oxygen on the moon, and they’re working on perfecting the science so that astronauts can live off the lunar base more easily.

Lunar soil, or regolith, is filled with valuable materials, such as oxygen, as well as metals including iron, titanium, and lithium. And a team at Sierra Space, a private aerospace and space technologies company, is working on extracting it. Doing so, it says, will help astronauts on the moon to breathe and can provide fuel for future missions—an important step for sustaining life on the moon or other planets.