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Published online 10 August 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.803
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How to breathe on the Moon
Moon rock can be processed directly to produce oxygen.
Scientists in Cambridge, UK, have developed a reactor that can make oxygen from Moon rock — a vital technology if plans to create a lunar base are to take off.
Whether tapping the Moon's resources or using the satellite as a jump-off point to explore the deeper reaches of space, occupants of any future lunar base will need oxygen to survive.
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It would be possible to use Cyanobacteria to generate oxygen on the Moon mimicking the events that took place in Archaic Period in the Earth?
One has to wonder if the urban legends are correct... that the first men on the Moon were told by aliens that we are NOT to come back (after the first landings were completed). Of course the US govt denies this but fails to explain how we could get to the Moon using 1950s technology and computers but have failed to return since. Now all the original engineers and astronauts are either dead or retired or too old to care, so they will start from scratch, and probably fail. Maybe the aliens retrieved all the minerals they wanted and deeded it to us.
For an alternative (negative) viewpoint on the impracticality and cost ineffectiveness of lunar in situ resource utilization, either download pdf files from http://www.spaceclimate.net, or read the chapter on ISRU in "Human Exploration of Mars" by Donald Rapp published by Praxis/Springer 2006. By contrast, ISRU on Mars makes a good deal of sense. Donald Rapp
you believe usa landed on the moon?
http://www.geoffreylandis.com/moonair.html Are there any lunar climatologists out there willing to verify the "just add water" hypothesis of Landis?
Yes, US landed a man on the Moon. Why not? However, it was political decision, at any costs, and once the goal achieved economy prevailed, and it says that it is by far the cheapest way to travel into space if you have a space station. But also before going to Moon one must also ensure that a permanent settlement is planned. This, however, requires cheep way of producing vital ingredients for life: oxygen and water. And that we must go to Moon, and further away, is imperative if our civilization is to survive, and we are talking not until the next week but the next thousands of years.