Israeli innovation will be able to produce oxygen from the moon’s surface

Israeli innovation will be able to produce oxygen from the moon’s surface

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An Israeli company has developed a method to produce oxygen from the lunar surface.

The project, named HELIOS after the company behind it, has received funding from the Israel Space Agency and is expected to develop a system that will launch two space missions over the next three years.

The technology behind the ambitious idea is based on a special furnace designed to extract oxygen and various metals directly from the lunar surface, without the need for additional materials from the earth.

This possibly means dependent technology that allows future human settlements on the moon to literally live off the land without constantly sending supplies off the earth.

“The technology we have developed is part of a value chain that can establish permanent bases outside the confines of planet earth,” said Jonathan Geifman, CEO and co-founder of HELIOS, emphasizing the importance of basic infrastructure. focus and the ability to produce raw materials from natural resources “to prevent your equipment from having to be transported endlessly.” Jonathan Geifman, CEO and co-founder of HELIOS (credit: Chaya Gold)Jonathan Geifman, CEO and co-founder of HELIOS (credit: Chaya Gold)


And while the oxygen produced by HELIOS could potentially serve astronauts for respiration, most of it will be used for launching and using space vehicles due to its share in the chemical process that leads to a combustion reaction.

According to HELIOS, the current cost of launching materials and equipment to the moon, Mars and beyond, limits the chances of a long-term extraterrestrial presence. ‘However, about 45% of the total mass of the surface of Mars and the moon is suitable for the extraction of oxygen,’ the company says.

This will come in handy, considering the staggering amount of oxygen needed for space travel. Maintaining four astronauts during their journey to the moon and back requires about 10 tons of oxygen. By comparison, the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX multifunctional Starship will cost around 850 tons of oxygen.

In the next five years, more than 50 missions to the moon will take place, requiring large amounts of oxygen. This is especially true when the recent collaboration between NASA and SpaceX is announced, which aims to bring astronauts to the moon as early as 2024 as early as 1972.

But this time, the idea is to leave more than one flag behind – a permanent station. And this is where the unique innovation of the Israeli company can play an important role.

“HELIOS ‘revolutionary technology … will make launching costs cheaper, enabling more cargo and allowing for long-term human presence in deep space in the future,” said Avi Blasberger, director general of the Israel Space Agency. of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.

“We expect that the return of humanity to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program will create significant business opportunities for the Israeli space industry and the space industry as a whole,” Blasberger added, concluding by congratulating HELIOS, a groundbreaking Israeli start-up, “to lead such an important development.

HELIOS was founded to realize the vision of Earth-independent space exploration, according to its website. Among the notable names currently involved in HELIOS ‘project is William Larson, a former project manager at NASA who specializes in resource utilization; Bertil Andersson, former CEO of the European Science Foundation and Yoav Landsman, a senior engineer who worked on the Beresheet project, which was Israel’s first attempt to land on the moon.

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