Turning Moon Soil into Air and Water: CSMC's HYDRO+
December 13th, 2023
As humans begin to explore sustained life on the Moon, the hardest problem will not be getting there, it will be staying alive once they arrive. Every liter of water and every breath of oxygen transported from Earth is expensive to launch, and reliance on terrestrial resources limits mission options and infrastructure development. The sustainable path forward is to identify and produce critical consumables on the Moon from regolith, the rocks and dust on the lunar surface. This concept, known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), is the core idea behind Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation's HYDRO+ technology.
HYDRO+: A Resource Extraction and Processing Technology
In December 2023, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced $2.9 million in funding to advance technologies seen as fundamental to long-term lunar exploration. CSMC was awarded $500,000 to build a prototype of HYDRO+, a proprietary resource-extraction and processing technology designed to operate across locations on the Moon with differing regolith compositions.
Lunar regolith, the loose and abrasive soil covering the Moon's surface, is rich in metal oxides, meaning oxygen is chemically bound within the rocks. HYDRO+ uses gas-reduction chemistry to break those bonds, releasing oxygen and other usable products. The system is designed to handle geological variability, where regolith composition changes from region to region.
The byproducts of this process are some of the most valuable resources in space: oxygen, hydrogen, and water, all essential for astronaut life support. Hydrogen and oxygen are also primary rocket propellant components, enabling return trips and deeper-space missions. A system that can consistently extract these elements from local materials could transform the Moon from an Earth-dependent outpost into a location that can sustain and resupply itself.
Why Flexibility Across Ore Types Is Critical
It is tempting to design lunar hardware around an idealized sample or site, but the Moon has major geological variability. Highlands, volcanic plains, and permanently shadowed polar craters each have distinct mineralogy.
HYDRO+'s focus on flexibility and its ability to process minerals from diverse geological regions addresses this reality. Viable lunar operations require producing oxygen and water even when feedstock is imperfect, and that is a capability CSMC is prototyping with CSA support.
How HYDRO+ Fits Into CSMC's Broader Plan
CSMC has built its portfolio around a core insight: sustained human presence on the Moon depends not only on access to resources but on the energy required to extract and use them. Its projects align closely with that thesis.
Complementing HYDRO+ is LunaPure, a water purification system designed to convert contaminated lunar ice from polar regions into drinkable water using solar heat and chemical processing. While HYDRO+ unlocks resources trapped in rock, LunaPure uses existing lunar ice in permanently shadowed regions and craters.
These systems require reliable power through lunar day and night cycles, each roughly 14 Earth days long. That is where CSMC's Low Enriched Uranium Nuclear Reactor (LEUNR) comes in. Together, these technologies form a capability suite for long-term exploration: reliable power generation, resource extraction from regolith, and purification of available lunar ice, reducing dependence on Earth-based resupply.
Importantly, these innovations extend beyond space. Similar approaches to water purification and compact, resilient power systems have clear terrestrial applications, particularly in remote or resource-constrained environments.
While challenges remain in validating these systems in real lunar conditions, the trajectory is clear. HYDRO+ and companion technologies point toward a future where the Moon can support itself, and where air, water, and even fuel can begin as lunar dust.