NASA’s Carbothermal Oxygen Production Reactor Demonstration (COPR-TP), led by Sierra Nevada Corporation under the Game Changing Development program, ran from November 9, 2022, through August 29, 2024, and is listed as completed. Its prototype was tested in a dirty thermal-vacuum chamber to target Technology Readiness Level 6 for lunar conditions. The process heats molten regolith simulant and uses carbon to remove oxygen from silicate minerals as carbon monoxide.
The reactor is significant because oxygen is both a life-support consumable and a potential oxidizer for lunar transportation. NASA identifies carbothermal reduction as the oxygen-extraction method with the strongest prospect for a successful flight demonstration and eventual long-duration scaling. The design could produce several times its own mass in oxygen annually, but actual lunar-regolith yield, byproducts, carbon recovery, solar-concentrator integration, and gas-analysis performance remain unverified; those systems were outside this project’s scope.
The Ark team should track a flight demonstration using actual lunar regolith, prioritize independent testing of carbon-loop closure and carbon-monoxide handling, and model oxygen output against crew demand, reserve policy, and propellant production. COPR should be treated as a candidate baseline for an integrated pilot plant, not as operational infrastructure, until NASA closes the stated strategic knowledge gaps in the lunar environment.