ESA researcher Arnaud Nizet is evaluating the FFC Cambridge molten-salt electrolysis process through an experimental campaign in ESTEC’s Large Diameter Centrifuge, intended to predict performance under lunar gravity and estimate extraction efficiency. The process reduces oxides in lunar regolith to produce oxygen and metals; prior tests extracted more than 90% of available oxygen from simulants and Apollo samples, with ESA demonstrations reaching 96% after 50 hours and 75% within 15 hours.[1][7]
The process operates with powdered regolith submerged in molten calcium chloride at approximately 950°C. Lunar gravity is 1.62 m/s², about 16.5% of Earth gravity, and may alter salt movement, gas transport, particle settling, electrode behavior, heat transfer, and reactor scalability. Oxygen is simultaneously a life-support consumable and an oxidizer for propellant, while metallic by-products could support construction; therefore, gravity-dependent efficiency directly affects habitat closure, launch mass, energy demand, and failure tolerance.[1][7][8]
The Ark team should track the centrifuge campaign’s measured extraction efficiency, oxygen-production rate, energy per kilogram of oxygen, reactor throughput, electrode durability, salt recovery, and residual oxygen in processed regolith. These parameters should be incorporated into redundancy models and technology gates, alongside ESA’s planned lunar demonstration targeting 50–100 grams of oxygen and 70% recovery from available sample oxygen.[4][6]