Researchers in China have unveiled new technology that could help astronauts live off the lunar landscape while conducting future missions on the Moon by harvesting water from lunar soil.
With the help of lunar soil samples collected during the Chang’e-5 mission, Chinese scientists have extracted water and used it to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuel, a technological advancement that enables a new self-sustaining life support system for future missions.
The research, conducted at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and led by Lu Wang, integrates water extraction and CO₂ conversion into a single, sunlight-driven system. The result is a low-cost, energy-efficient process that could form the foundation for self-sustaining life support systems in space.
“We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed,” Wang said in a statement. “The one-step integration of lunar H₂O extraction and photothermal CO₂ catalysis could enhance energy utilization efficiency and decrease the cost and complexity of infrastructure development.”
The new research is just the latest study to offer a potentially viable process for producing water on the Moon. Similar research last year also reported that water production using local lunar resources may be feasible, further adding to the promising nature of the latest findings.
Water on the Moon
For decades, space agencies worldwide have looked to the Moon as a potential stepping stone for deeper space exploration. But supplying vital resources such as water and fuel has remained one of the greatest logistical hurdles.
Given the daily requirements for water each astronaut faces during daily operations on the Moon, the ability to generate this life-sustaining commodity on the lunar surface would change space travel as we know it.
However, experts caution that producing water at scale may only be feasible in specific lunar environments—particularly those where water ice has already been confirmed.
“Since this process depends on extracting water, in my opinion, the only viable location for this kind of process is the lunar poles in permanently shadowed regions,” John Gruener, a retired space scientist formerly with the NASA Johnson Space Center, told The Debrief in an email.
“Those places are the only ones we’ve identified so far as having enough water to make this a viable process for scaling up and producing large enough amounts of water needed for life support systems and rocket propellant production,” Gruener said.
“Some of the equatorial and mid-latitude regional pyroclastic deposits have indicated hydration at higher levels than the surrounding terrains, but still not at the levels and amounts needed for the future,” Gruener added.
Ilmenite’s Role in Fuel Production
In their recent study, the Chinese research team also demonstrated that lunar soil contains not only water but also materials that can catalyze the conversion of CO₂ into other useful compounds. One such material is ilmenite, a common mineral on the Moon that contains iron and titanium.
In the team’s setup, sunlight is used to heat a photothermal reactor containing ilmenite, which then triggers chemical reactions that produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen—precursors to oxygen and hydrocarbon fuels. These compounds can be further processed into breathable air and rocket propellant.
Wang and his colleagues argue that this method is more efficient than traditional systems that require multiple, energy-intensive steps. By combining water extraction and CO₂ conversion in a single solar-powered process, the system reduces complexity and energy demands.
However, Gruener still thinks there could be additional challenges.
“The basic compositional differences between mare and highland units, and high ilmenite basalt versus lower bearing ilmenite basalts may present challenges for this technique on the Moon globally,” Gruener told The Debrief.
He also pointed to the Moon’s uneven soil composition, variable environmental conditions, and persistent radiation exposure as complicating factors for astronauts attempting to operate such systems in the field.
“Overcoming these technical hurdles and significant associated costs in development, deployment, and operation will be crucial to realizing sustainable lunar water utilization and space exploration,” the Chinese researchers said.
Not Yet on NASA’s Roadmap
While the Chinese team’s breakthrough presents a promising vision for lunar sustainability, it’s not yet clear whether this specific process will be used during space missions in the near future.
“Before I retired, I did not see any evidence of this particular process, or any oxygen-producing process being prepared for CLPS missions as precursor missions to Artemis,” Gruener told The Debrief, musing on whether this could possibly have applications for NASA’s forthcoming Artemis program. “Not yet, anyway.”
“It took quite a few years for all that resource utilization you see in the TV series The Expanse to happen,” Gruener added. “We will just have to be patient and see where the commercial markets and companies take us.”
The recent research paper, “Inherent lunar water enabled photothermal CO2 catalysis,” was published in the journal Joule.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com.