• Question: is it possible to reproduce the stuff that gives us air and put it on the moon

    Asked by Donnacha to Anthea, Chloe, Kevin, Michel, Sean on 15 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sean Kelly

      Sean Kelly answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      Great question. In a sense, yes, but it would be very difficult! Humans need air that has a lot of oxygen in it to survive. However, we cannot make this oxygen. But our very good friends, plants and algae (such as seaweed), do make oxygen! Plants and algae take in the carbon dioxide (CO2) that we exhale and generate from our cars when we burn fossil fuels, and they give off oxygen (O2). So, if we wanted to live on the moon we would need to bring lots of plants and algae to make oxygen for us. We would also need to build huge buildings to keep all of these plants in and give them the water and light they need to survive. These buildings would also need to keep in the air for us and keep out the harmful air from the moon’s atmosphere. It might be theoretically possible but I’m sure it would be immensely difficult, dangerous and expensive.

      I’m sure it is more complicated than this but this should give you the idea. Also, we need more than just the correct air to survive. We need clean water and food (whether than comes in plant or animal form). NASA are currently thinking of sending people to live on Mars. As the moon is much closer and probably not as dangerous as Mars, maybe we could send people to live there.

    • Photo: Kevin Healy

      Kevin Healy answered on 21 Nov 2014:

      Actually one of the ways to make oxygen is surprisingly easy. All you need is some water and an electrical current. If you pass a current through the water it breaks it down into Hydrogen and Oxygen. This is actually what the internation space station does to produce some of its oxygen.
      However if we ignore the problem of getting all the water to the moon another big problem is keeping the oxrgen on the moon. Because the moon is so small it only has 1/6 of the gravity of the earth. This means that you only weigh 1/6 as much on the moon as you do on earth. This would also be true of the oxygen and the problem is that because it is so light it would simply float away!

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