Scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center have been able to extract oxygen from artificial lunar dust placed in a vacuum.. During the tests, lunar dust was melted in a special reactor that can be heated to very high temperatures, Space reports.. com.

When the artificial lunar soil warmed up, scientists noticed the release of carbon monoxide from it, from which oxygen can then be extracted..

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The ability to obtain oxygen directly from the Moon will be critical to the long-term missions to the Moon that NASA is about to undertake as part of the Artemis program.. As part of these missions, the agency seeks to collect and use resources on the ground.

During the experiment, a powerful laser was placed in a vacuum chamber with a diameter of 4.6 meters, which was supposed to simulate concentrated moonlight and melt regolith. Similar experiments have been done before, but not in a vacuum..

The scientists were able to maintain a constant pressure in the chamber, preventing gases from escaping and allowing the spent regolith to exit and return to the reaction zone..

The researchers noticed that the regolith that was exposed to the laser emitted carbon monoxide.. It was then possible to isolate pure oxygen from it..

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have previously named four astronauts who will fly around the moon next November on the Artemis 2 spacecraft, the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence on the moon for scientific research..