Future lunar missions will need to be able to use water from the Moon for their food and activities. Two countries have set themselves a great challenge: to make the water stocks of our natural satellite drinkable and usable.
We know today that beneath its desert and arid appearance, the Moon contains reserves of water surfaced on its surface. These stocks of water hidden under the dust covering our natural satellite will probably play a crucial role in space exploration: future long-duration lunar missions plan to exploit this resource to meet the needs of astronauts, manufacture fuel or even irrigate crops in greenhouses.
On paper, the plan is perfect and makes it possible to exploit the resources already present on the Moon by limiting the transport of water by rockets from Earth. In practice, it’s not that simple: in fact, it turns out that this water is simply not drinkable! Not only are there magnesium and calcium, which corresponds to what we call “hard” water, but it especially contains mercury which is a real poison for humans. It is therefore essential to treat this toxic water to make it drinkable before being able to use it.
In order to solve this problem, the space agencies of Canada and the United Kingdom have launched a challenge called Aqualunar open to all Canadians and British people until April 2024. Each participant is invited to imagine an innovative technological solution that would purify lunar water and produce one liter of clean, drinkable water per hour from ice extracted from the Shackleton crater located at the Moon’s south pole.
Developing such technology is no easy feat because of the conditions on the Moon. Just imagine: gravity six times weaker than that of Earth, extremely abrasive rocks and dust that wear out tools prematurely, and Dantean temperatures oscillating between -170°C at night and up to 120°C during the day. day… this is the environment in which the water purification system must be able to operate. The final challenge is that the equipment will have to be transported by rocket aboard a lunar module, which means that it will be necessary to design technology that is at the same time robust, light and compact. A real feat! Faced with this technological challenge, Canadian and British innovators have their work cut out for them to one day provide drinking water to astronauts on future missions!