Resource Production on the Moon

A self-sustaining settlement on the moon, or on other airless bodies such as asteroids, will require the ability to refine desired raw materials from available resources, such as lunar or asteroidal regolith. This work will focus on the example case of pro-duction from lunar regolith. The same process sequences could be used at other locations. Stony asteroids typically have regolith similar to that of the moon, and refining of asteroidal material could use the same techniques, adapted for microgravity. Likewise, Martian rock and soil could also be processed by the techniques discussed here.