New device can protect astronauts from skin burns on Moon, Mars & produce oxygen says ESA

The surface of Moon and Mars are believed to conceal unseen hazards in their dusty faces which can prove to be a problem for future explorers. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), these hazards are areas of highly oxidising material that could be highly reactive and cause chemical burns on unprotected skin or lungs of astronauts. In order to find a solution to this problem, a team of scientists is developing a device that can detect such ‘reactive oxygen species' and harvest oxygen from them which can be used by the astronauts.

How are these hazards formed?

Explaining the formation of these reactive oxygen species, Professor Christos Georgiou of the Biology Department at the University of Patras said as per an ESA statement, "These reactive oxygen species are created by intense ultraviolet irradiation of the surface, especially of fractured minerals broken up by temperature extremes and micrometeorites, resulting in a surface with a lot of free chemical bonds".

He added that charting such highly reactive species for two main reasons. The first is that their presence is destructive for both human settlements as well as crop growth and they can also erase any trace of possible Martian bio-fossils, which can mislead scientists while looking for areas that could have otherwise been explored. 

Producing oxygen from highly reactive species

The device which is being developed by the expert team would not only detect the regions of highly reactive oxygen species but also periodically extract oxygen from the soil, in a process that has been termed ‘oxygen farming’. According to ESA, the project, under which the device is being built, includes the initial design of a large-scale reactor device for oxygen extraction. This oxygen supply would then be replenished by a solar UV irradiation within hours.

Interestingly, the device would be able to produce enough oxygen to keep a single astronaut alive from a three-acre area. Dr. Ioannis Markopoulos, who is part of the project, said as per ESA, "The aim is that the prospecting detector should be smaller than a paperback book. It is likely that astronauts would find it useful across the entire span of any mission to the Moon and Mars". 

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