Chinese scientists turn Moon soil into oxygen and water needed for life

04-Aug-2025

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Chinese scientists have developed a technology that can extract water from lunar soil and use it to produce oxygen and chemicals vital for fuel, dramatically reducing the need to transport life-sustaining resources from Earth to the Moon.

The research, published in the Cell Press journal Joule on July 16, demonstrates how lunar resources could be harnessed to create “miniature life support systems” for astronauts, a challenge that has long hindered plans for a sustained human presence on the Moon.

“We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed,” said Lu Wang, a researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. According to Wang, the team’s greatest surprise was the “tangible success” of integrating water extraction from lunar soil with a process that uses light (via a photothermal catalyst) to transform carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts into oxygen and fuel precursors—all in one step.

“This approach enhances energy utilization efficiency and decreases the complexity of lunar infrastructure,” Wang explained.