can produce water, oxygen and fuel from lunar soil.

Until now, scientists knew that the moon contained large amounts of water in its minerals. But the methods proposed for extracting resources from the lunar soil (called regolith) were usually complex and energy-intensive, making them unsustainable for long-term lunar colonies.

Now, Luo Wang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues have found that a simple solar-powered reactor can produce useful resources by exposing the regolith to sunlight and the carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts.

For their experiments, the researchers used samples of lunar soil brought back to Earth by China’s Chengyi-5 mission.

In the reactor, sunlight and heat first extract water from the soil, after which the soil acts as a catalyst in the reaction between water and carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide, oxygen, and hydrogen, which can be used as fuel.