Building a Sustainable Lunar Presence Leveraging In-Situ Resource Utilization

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technology will be vital for sustainable human exploration and habitation of space, and while many systems have been proposed, systems with more generalized use-cases are still rare. The Lunar Resource Extraction Demonstrator System (LREDS) is investigating the viability of Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE) for oxygen separation from lunar regolith, as well as the potential extraction of metals and silicates for general use by humans on the lunar surface. Leveraging research on regolith chemical makeup, minerology, and petrology, as well as previous work on ISRU systems, LREDS aims to produce both an analytical and experimental prototype for a generalized lunar regolith processing unit. This work aims to provide a basis for future work on ISRU systems and pave the way for widespread, affordable resource utilization on the moon and beyond.