Blue Origin Scientists Have Found A Way To Turn Moon Dust Into Solar Power

To recreate Earth's living conditions on the Moon, astronauts require novel solutions that can keep their colonies powered and safe. Scientists have shown interest in using the dusty surface of the Moon to manufacture solar panels. Now, it seems that they've run into some luck.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin quietly announced that its "Blue Alchemist" programme had been working on the same for about two years. The company claims that it has managed to create solar cells and electricity transmission wires from simulated lunar soil.

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Creating solar cells for human colonies on the Moon

This simulated soil is a lot like regolith on the Moon that is present there in abundance. Through a process known as "molten regolith electrolysis," Blue Origin may have just changed the way solar cells are manufactured.

Solar cell created by Blue Origin / Blue Origin

In this process, direct electric current is applied to the simulated regolith at a high temperature (over 1,600¡ã Celsius). This process would in theory allow researchers to extract aluminum, iron, and silicon from the lunar regolith. The space company claims that it has produced silicon to more than 99.999% purity through this process.

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Also read: Explained: What Does UAE's Rashid Rover Hope To Achieve On The Moon?

But that's not even the tip of the iceberg. The major win from Blue Alchemist is that scientists picked the byproducts of this reaction to create solar cells and a protective glass cover that would enable the cells to survive for 10 years or longer on the Moon.

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"Although our vision is technically ambitious, our technology is real now," the company's blog post said. Now, Blue Origin will market this technology to NASA for potential use in its Artemis programme that aims to put humans on the Moon again. "Blue Origin¡¯s goal of producing solar power using only lunar resources is aligned with NASA¡¯s highest priority Moon-to-Mars infrastructure development objective."

Also read: James Webb Telescope Learns Astonishing Things About Saturn's Moon Titan

This development marks a giant leap for setting up power generating mechanisms on the Moon, and by extrapolation, other space bodies.

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