According to Kyodo News on August 13, Japanese and Israeli startups have agreed to cooperate in a project to test oxygen production on the Moon, a technology that is expected to help astronauts carry out long-term missions on the Moon without depending on oxygen support from Earth.
Under the project, Israel's Helios Project Ltd. will conduct experiments to extract oxygen by melting lunar soil at high temperatures and electrolyzing it. Meanwhile, Japan's Ispace Inc. will provide equipment for these experiments, scheduled to take place between 2023 and 2025.
According to the British Institute of Physics, lunar soil contains 42% oxygen and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has successfully tested a technique to extract oxygen from lunar soil.
Helios CEO Jonathan Geifman said that oxygen extraction and creation of breathable air for humans is crucial to ensuring that humans can stay on long-term missions to the Moon. The agreement between Helios and Ispace marks the first collaboration between Israeli and Japanese private companies in the field of space development.
Helios has been developing a reactor that can process lunar soil to extract oxygen and metals such as iron, aluminum... A reactor to process Martian soil is also being researched and produced by an Israeli company.
Helios estimates that 1 ton of lunar soil will yield about 250 kg of oxygen. If successful, the project could ensure the continued survival of human settlements on this natural satellite.
