Moon in a bottle: HOWTO microwave lunar dust to extract water

Xeni Jardin 5:28 pm Wed Oct 7, 2009

Scientists at NASA say they've figured out a way to extract water from moondust, using the same old ordinary microwave ovens you and I use to extract "lunch" from frozen pizza-bricks:

"We believe we can use microwave heating to cause the water ice in a lunar permafrost layer to sublimate – that is, turn into water vapor. The water vapor can be collected and then condensed into liquid water. "Best of all, microwave extraction can be done on the spot. And it requires no excavation — no heavy equipment for drilling into the hard-frozen lunar surface."

Microwaving Water from Moondust (NASA)

Image: Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean holds up a thermos full of moondust. (courtesy NASA)

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