The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Clara Venture Labs and The Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH), a contract for developing technology for generating hydrogen and oxygen from Lunar resources as well as CO2 extracted from the Martian atmosphere. The long-term goal is to establish a fuel station at the moon and Mars to support missions to Mars including return flights and the exploration of deep space.
To support the upcoming exploration of Mars and deep space, there is also a significant drive for returning to moon, both with robotic missions such as Heracles and the Space Gateway, a new manned space station which orbits the moon and act as a pit stop for astronauts traveling to more distant destinations. Resource utilisation on the moon to provide fuel, oxygen and water is one of the main targets for returning to the moon.
“Clara Venture Labs is honoured to be awarded the SOFC contract and proud to be part of the circular economy on the moon. We look forward to developing key technology supporting manned missions to the Moon and beyond”, says Bernt Skeie, CEO at Clara Venture Labs.
It has been confirmed in the past years that water is presented at the lunar poles as mixture regolith and ice. These water resources can be extracted and converted to hydrogen and oxygen through splitting of the water molecule using electrical energy, a process well known as electrolysis. However, since the lunar water resources are very dirty, containing elements as frozen ammonia and methane as well as sulphur elements, traditional electrolysis technology will require an energy-intensive purification process upfront. Thus, ESA has selected high temperature electrolysis using the solid oxide fuel cell (SOEC) technology as the most promising candidate for this operation. The SOEC technology operate at 800°C with steam instead of liquid water, and with significantly lower energy input than water electrolysis carried out below 100°C. Within the actual contract, Clara Venture Labs and CERTH will carry out a proof of concept for SOEC electrolyser operating under relevant lunar conditions. In case of success, the activity will continue with scaling up the technology and make it suitable for space flights.
In parallel, there is a dedicated activity that includes the SOEC electrolyser technology on missions to Mars. Underground seas of water have been identified and as a consequence of the high temperature, the SOEC electrolyser can also split CO2 into carbon monoxide and oxygen. These elements are essential to produce fuel for return flight or oxygen for life support. The atmosphere on Mars consists of 95% CO2 and the SOEC technology can make oxygen available all over the red planet.
“NASA has recently extracted the first grams of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere with their Moxie unit included on the Mars 2020 rover. However, we believe that we are in a position to compete with NASA when the technology shall be further developed to support the next missions”, says project manager Ivar Wærnhus.
“We are proud of - and humbled by – the recognition shown us by ESA, and value highly the opportunity to further develop our technology in cooperation with our esteemed partners. Clara Venture Labs is deeply thankful for the support from the Norwegian Space Agency and is looking forward to advancing these technologies towards the Moon and beyond”, says Skeie.
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