Oxygen Mining


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By weight, moon rocks are about 40% oxygen. By heating the top meter of 1 acre of moon dust to 1300 degrees Celsius, we get 3000 to 3500 tons of oxygen. Every ton of extracted oxygen requires 450 kilocalories of energy. If we increase the temperature (and the amount of energy) just a bit... to 1500 degrees Celsius, we get a lot more than just oxygen.
See the other elements

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