Specialists of Tomsk State University (TSU) joined the consortium for the development of the space raw material base. As part of it, a test center for developments for the production of hydrogen and helium on the Moon will be created, Konstantin Belyakov, vice-rector for innovation at TSU, told TASS.
According to him, terrestrial technologies cannot be used on the moon. “Let me give you an example: to extract metals on Earth, very massive equipment is used - tens, hundreds of tons. It takes colossal costs and colossal efforts to take an analogue of terrestrial mining technology and deliver it to the Moon, Belyakov said.
He added that new technologies should appear, which from the point of view of use on Earth will be ineffective, and they need to be tested
Tomsk scientists, as well as specialists from the Center for Innovative Mining Technologies (CIGT), have created analogs of the lunar soil - regolith, which can be used when testing mining equipment. In the future, the university can create a special center for such work.
Belyakov noted that samples of mining equipment for working on the Moon may appear in the next 5-10 years.
In addition, the interlocutor of the agency noted, TSU as an educational institution plans to train various specialists who will be engaged in the creation and operation of such equipment.
The moon can be promising in terms of producing hydrogen and helium, which can be used to create fuel for spacecraft. Even with a much higher cost of mining on the Moon, delivering fuel from its orbit will be much more efficient than delivering fuel to space from Earth, Belyakov said.
The project to create fuel production and "filling stations" could significantly increase Russia's position in the market for commercial services in space. Now the share of Russia on it is 0.6%, the scientist added.
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