Working with NASA scientists, a team of four Ohio State aerospace engineering undergraduates began testing their potentially groundbreaking experiment in processing oxygen from lunar soil today.
From today through April 12, the “Astrobucks” are studying a new technique to derive oxygen from metals in the moon’s soil at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. If successful, this could make space missions significantly cheaper by reducing the amount of oxygen astronauts would have to bring with them. In addition to providing air for astronauts to breathe, oxygen can be used for propulsion.
“The reason this process is so interesting is that it may be possible to set up ‘gas stations’ on the moon,” said Rachel Neff, Astrobucks team member and senior in aerospace engineering. “Oxygen could be cooled and stored and then be ready for pick up. Any space mission launched from Earth could swing by the moon to pick up oxygen for its trip.”
NASA has shown particular interest in the prospect of extracting oxygen from moon rocks, offering $250,000 in 2005 to the first team that can perform the extraction in less than eight hours. While the Ohio State team is unlikely to meet this challenge by the June 1 deadline, they are still making significant strides toward making such a process possible.
The experiment will be flown in NASA’s C-9 aircraft in a lunar gravity environment simulating weightlessness; students on the team will fly with the experiment to gather data.
“The aircraft flies over the Gulf of Mexico executing parabolic maneuvers — think of a rollercoaster,” said Jack McNamara, assistant professor of aerospace engineering and faculty advisor to the team. “If you've ever ridden a rollercoaster, you know that your stomach drops out when you go over the top and descend quickly. This is you experiencing reduced gravity. What you experience for a split second, the students will experience for half of a minute at a time, repeated over 30 times.”
The students will split their remaining time in Houston between physical training, interaction with NASA scientists and astronauts and ensuring the experiment is prepared for the flight. In addition to Neff, the team is comprised of Elizabeth Carruthers, Michael Boehler and Richard Jedrey, all juniors in aerospace engineering.
The team will hold a video conference at 1:30 p.m. April 11 in room 580 of the Baker Systems Engineering Building on the Ohio State University campus to discuss the results of their experiment.
Joan Slattery Wall, (614) 292-4064, wall.107@osu.edu April 4, 2008
