Glasgow University secures funding 'to make the moon habitable'

The University of Glasgow has secured a spot in an international space challenge for its cutting-edge tech. 

Experts are developing a device designed to purify ice frozen in the moon's soil, making it habitable.

The Scottish institution is one of 10 finalists of the Aqualunar challenge and will receive £30,000 to continue its project.

Launched earlier this year, the challenge is a £1.2m international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by non-profit Challenge Works.

It is also supported by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Canadian government's initiative to push innovation, Impact Canada.

Glasgow's solution is similar to how a household water filter works.

Researchers Shaun Fletcher and Lukman Yusuf are developing an ultrasound-powered “sonoreactor” to purify dirty water.

The device is designed to split and remove volatile compounds and gases, destroy pollutants and clump lunar dust together for easy removal. Water then passes through a filter bed of lunar soil to remove final contaminants.

If successful, the innovative idea could support Nasa’s Artemis Campaign, which aims to build a permanent outpost on the moon by 2030.

Currently, estimates say around six percent of the soil around the lunar south pole is frozen water.

However, to date, the lunar environment has made it hard to purify ice, chair of the Aqualunar Challenge judging panel, Meganne Christian, explained: “With no atmosphere and parts of the surface having never seen sunlight, the ice in the soil is as hard as steel and heavily contaminated with lunar dust - known as regolith - which forms a grinding paste when wet. It is no small feat to melt the ice, separate it from the dust and other elements and make it usable.”

The new technologies must require “minimal maintenance”, Christian continued, as it is “expensive and risky” to continuously send supplies from Earth and astronauts won’t be able to regularly change filters and tighten nuts and bolts.

The new technologies could also be deployed on Earth, helping regions that are under water stress or lack access to clean drinking water, it is claimed.

Currently, more than a quarter of the world does not have access to safely managed drinking water and unsafe water resources are responsible for more than one million deaths each year.

Winners and runners-up of the Aqualunar challenge will be announced next year.