Using samples collected by the Chinese Chang’e 5 mission, researchers have discovered a new way to release water from lunar regolith and process the carbon dioxide breathed out by astronauts
By James Woodford
16 July 2025
A photo of the lunar surface taken by China’s Chang’e 5 lander, which collected samples in 2020
CNSA/Xinhua/Alamy
A solar-powered device could produce water, oxygen and fuel from lunar soil for future colonies of astronauts on the moon.
It has long been known that a large amount of water is locked up in minerals on the moon. But proposals to harvest resources from the lunar soil, known as regolith, generally involve complicated, energy-intensive methods that are unlikely to be sustainable for long-term lunar colonies.
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Now, Lu Wang at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues have found that a relatively simple solar-powered reactor can produce useful resources by exposing regolith to sunlight and the CO₂ exhaled by astronauts.
To conduct their experiments, the researchers used lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e 5 mission and simulated samples made from terrestrial rocks.
In the reactor, light and heat from the sun first extracts water from the lunar soil, then the soil acts as a catalyst for a reaction between CO₂ and water to produce carbon monoxide, oxygen and hydrogen, which can be used as fuel. Some water from the first step would be left over and available for other uses.