The Electrochemical Production of Oxygen and Metal via the FFC-Cambridge Process

Introduction: The most significant component in any bi-propellant rocket is the oxygen required for fuel combustion. This may account for up to 85%wt of the rocket propulsion reactants. Therefore, it is vital that locally produced oxygen is available from off-world sources to enable more economically viable space exploration to more distant regions of solar systems, and beyond. Our Moon in particular is a desirable location for the refuelling of rockets. Its relative close proximity to the Earth (~380,000km), and it being the only offworld site so far successfully visited by man, makes it the obvious first candidate when considering the location of a spacecraft refuelling station. Furthermore, elemental analysis of lunar material from Apollo and Luna landings, has yielded that the composition of the lunar surface material is approximately 44%wt oxygen, locked in the form of metal oxides (Figure 1). Through the novel FFC-Cambridge Process, it may be possible to extract the oxygen component from the lunar regolith to ultimately fuel spacecraft, and produce a potentially useful metallic sideproduct.