Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has quietly announced on its blog that it has been working on a "Blue Alchemist" program for the past two years to make solar panels and power transmission cables from simulated lunar soil.
Undoubtedly an advertisement that represents a major advance in space exploration and colonization, and demonstrates the potential of the technology of electrolysis of molten regolith to produce vital resources on the Moon and other celestial bodies.
The research relies on a process known as "molten regolith electrolysis," in which a direct electric current is applied to simulate regolith at a very high temperature to extract iron, silicon and aluminum from lunar regolith.
Blue Origin engineers have used the byproducts of this process to make the solar panels and their protective covering, which allows the panels to remain on the lunar surface for a decade or more.
The significance of this achievement lies in the fact that the same electrolysis technology can be used to produce minerals to build habitats and other structures, as well as to generate oxygen. These advances are important if humans are to live and work in space without having to rely entirely on Earth. Although there is still a long way to go for mass industrialization on the Moon, this experiment marks a crucial step in the development of space exploration and colonization technologies.
Blue Origin hopes to commercialize this technology for NASA and its Artemis program, which seeks to return humans to the Moon in a sustainable, long-term way, and to create infrastructure such as power systems. The company has also established a business unit focusing exclusively on lunar activities and has been actively recruiting personnel to work in this field for several years.
Undoubtedly an advertisement that represents a major advance in space exploration and colonization, and demonstrates the potential of the technology of electrolysis of molten regolith to produce vital resources on the Moon and other celestial bodies.
You can read the article at blueorigin.com
Technologies that will make a big difference and will have much demand in the next few years
