THE MOON'S COMMENT ON ESA MAKING OXYGEN OUT OF MOONDUST!

The European Space Agency (ESA) has now a prototype plant that produces oxygen out of simulated moondust, i.e. out of stuff similar to the actual regolith, "a layer of loose, heterogeneous material, composed of mostly dust and rock fragments" [see] that covers almost all Moon's surface and is made up of "40–45% oxygen by weight" [see].

ESA's final goal is to have a working plant "that could operate sustainably on the Moon, with the first technology demonstration targeted for the mid-2020s" [see].   

ESA's new prototype facility is in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, in the Netherlands.

The following cartoon reports the Moon's comment on this news.

Moon's comment on ESA producing oxygen out of moondust (by @sciencemug)

[Moon's free pic by Neven Krcmarek (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug]

SO LONG, PHILAE!

Goodbye Philae! by PiPs, Bernards & by @sciencemug

Today's the day when, to save its power [(which is lower and lower given it's generated by solar pannels and the Sun is 520 million km (and going) away now)], European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Rosetta (the piece of human immagination, technology, intelligence, hard work and ambition which for ten years (2004-2014) chased, and finally, on 6 August 2014, reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko) is switching off the tool used to communicate with its lander Philae, which is on the comet and silent since last summer (9 July 2015).

Goodbye, lander-pal Philae, enjoy your slumber and your view.

And thanks for all the fish... No, sorry... For all the amazing science and your epic landing!

The sciencemug gang.