Photo: Michael Pierce for Missouri S&T
Jacob Ortega, a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T, sees an opportunity to turn the moon’s surface materials into aluminum for lunar construction, and NASA is backing his research.
According to S&T, Ortega has received a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity award to support his research, which focuses on a system that will use molten salt and electricity to split the aluminum and oxygen ions found in aluminum oxide and produce pure metallic aluminum. The system will need to be able to withstand extreme temperatures, corrosion and other challenges that come with operating far from Earth.
“The moon’s regolith, or loose surface material, contains a mineral called anorthite with elemental aluminum in the form of aluminum oxide,” said Ortega, who is also a Kummer Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellow at S&T. “Aluminum could be a building block for future settlements. If we can use what’s already on the moon, it would be far more practical than shipping everything from Earth.”
NASA previously funded part of Ortega’s project through the 2023 Breakthrough, Innovation, and Game-Changing Idea (BIG Idea) Challenge: Lunar Forge, and the project was selected for a NASA award for its progress to that point.
Ortega’s NASA fellowship, which includes funding that can be used for tuition, a stipend, research expenses and a summer visiting technologist experience at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., can potentially be renewed for up to four years.
His advisor is Dr. Frank D. Han, an associate professor of aerospace engineering and geological engineering at S&T.
Source: Missouri S&T