The Italian space agency (ASI) has awarded OHB a contract to develop its ORACLE mission, which aims to validate technology for the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith on the surface of the Moon.
Work on the Oxygen Retrieval Asset by Carbothermal-reduction in Lunar Environment (ORACLE) mission began in July 2023 when ASI signed an agreement with the Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) to start developing the core technology.
At its core, the ORACLE system heats lunar regolith with carbon at high temperatures, triggering a carbothermic reaction that releases oxygen bound in metal oxides. The extracted oxygen can then be collected and stored for use in sustaining astronauts on the lunar surface, fueling rockets returning to Earth, or pushing on to Mars.
On 23 June, ASI announced that it had signed a contract with the OHB Italia-led consortium for the development of the ORACLE mission up to the flight model stage. The consortium includes two additional partners: ENEA, which will support the engineering of the chemical process, and Kayser Italia, which will provide the mission’s control electronics. The development phase is expected to last approximately 40 months, and the resulting payload will have maximum dimensions of 500 × 500 × 500 millimetres.
A market survey notice published by ASI on 24 November 2023 stated that the ORACLE project would have a maximum budget of €11 million. However, the 23 June ASI update announcing OHB as the mission’s prime contractor did not confirm whether that figure remains accurate.
While ASI pushes ahead with the development of ORACLE, the mission does not yet have a ride to the lunar surface. According to the agency, it will be carried to the Moon on a “future lunar mission currently being selected.”
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