Long-duration manned missions have a critical need for life support loop closure both for the journey, and for long-term survival in lunar and Martian surface colonies. The current state-of-the-art technology on board the International Space Station (ISS) is the Sabatier system, which has the potential for 50% oxygen recovery. This will not be sufficient to sustain manned flight beyond low Earth orbit. Therefore, this system must be greatly modified, or other life support system technologies must be developed with a higher potential for oxygen recovery. These systems may take the form of a Series Bosch system that has the potential to achieve 100% oxygen recovery from metabolic carbon dioxide, or a carbothermal reduction process to extract oxygen from surface regolith. pH Matter's automated Carbon Formation Reactor (CFR) is a critical component of both systems, providing both solid carbon that can be used as a feedstock for carbothermal reduction as well as water, which can be electrolyzed to release oxygen. pH Matter's automated CFR has been demonstrated at the four-crew member scale at both ambient pressure and at an elevated pressure of 200psia. The pressurized system was developed for use on the lunar or Martian surface for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), while the ambient pressure system was developed for use in human-occupied habitats. The team will demonstrate the highly automated CFR reactor system at the forty-crew member ISRU-scale in May 2024.
Powell et al. (Sun,) studied this question.