A multidisciplinary team from Missouri S&T, the Rolla-based research institute, was one of the seven finalists in NASA's 2023 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing Idea (BIG Idea) Challenge: Lunar Forge. Last month, the study on lunar aluminium production was presented in Cleveland by the S&T team, headed by Jacob Ortega, a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering and Kummer Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellow from Vallejo, California.

The S&T lunar metal project began in autumn 2022 after the team submitted a proposal to NASA for the competition. In the spring of 2023, NASA declared S&T as a finalist and allocated cash to support the team's ongoing research. The experiment conducted by S&T was named "Lunar In-Situ Aluminium Production Through Molten Salt Electrolysis" and focused on using anorthite, a plentiful lunar mineral that includes aluminium.

"A few of the judges — NASA Glenn employees working in both terrestrial and lunar resources — acknowledged that we were trying to tackle a very difficult problem. They commended us for the attempt to solve it and passed along business cards for us keep in touch in case we had any questions or to update them when we finally produce aluminum," said Ortega.

Even though the team did not successfully generate aluminium before the contest's final stage, the team received NASA's Edison Award, which is a tribute to Thomas Edison's quote: "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The lamp was a 1,000-step creation." Ortega asserts that the purpose of this prize was to showcase the team's progress in the eventual production of lunar metals, notwithstanding their current lack of success.

The group researched techniques for electrolysis to diminish the aluminium oxide present in the anorthite, producing aluminium metal. Ortega asserts that his efforts on this matter are ongoing since they have the potential to impact forthcoming advancements on the moon substantially.