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miemcc t1_j8upacm wrote

Reply to comment by invol713 in Nasa wants to build an oxygen pipeline on the moon by FlingingGoronGonads

The present thinking is that the oxygen will come from ice in deep pockets in crater walls at the Lunar South Pole - Specifically Shakleton Crater. Being near the pole gives near constant sunlight for the base and for the electrolysers.

If the O2 is generated in the crater, it will need to be moved to make it available for the Base and launchers. Initally that will be by rover. The aim of this research is to see how they can locally produce gas-tight pipelines from regolith

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FlingingGoronGonads OP t1_j8xhgwo wrote

> The present thinking is that the oxygen will come from ice in deep pockets in crater walls at the Lunar South Pole

Based on this related article from NASA, my understanding is that the oxygen will be extracted directly from the regolith.

Given that they're already going to be processing the stuff to obtain the metals in the first place, that makes more sense than drawing O2 from the ice, and can be done at any old site on Luna, which is not the case if you're dependent on polar ice.

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