The return of humans to the Moon is hopefully just a few year away , and the finish this prison term is to set up a uninterrupted presence on our natural planet . all-important to that is the human ability to use resources found on the Moon – and the self-aggrandising one is water . There is pee on the Moon , but extracting it and purify it is a bounteous labor . as luck would have it , there are hoi polloi who are up for the challenge .

It is a challenge indeed : theAquaLunar Challenge . This is an external project done in collaboration between the UK Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency . The total prize is £ 1.2 million , split between a UK lead and a Canadian track . The financial support is not fancy to progress and deploy the technology , but to put onwards intriguing prototypes . The UK has herald its 10 finalists , with a winner and two runner - ups being selected next year .

Of of course everything we do for space , we want it to assist us here on Earth as well

“ We ’ve had a first - round where a number of teams accede their ideas for [ the Challenge ] . Then we had a judgement panel and we have chosen 10 which will go ahead . They ’ve got £ 30,000 each to create a prototype or whatever they can in the next few months and then we ’ll choose a winner and two blue runner up and they ’ll share in £ 300,000,”Dr Meganne Christian , UK Space Agency reserve astronaut and death chair of the Aqualunar Challenge judging gore , told IFLScience .

The finalistshave various ideas on where they get the water from : the dirty ice eat up in crater that have never seen sunlight or from the lunar grime itself , the regolith . They have multiple room to purify the water , such as extractor , plasma , wakeless Wave , and acute heat . The ideas are sheer for sure .

Even with the winnings , the prototype wo n’t be immediately ready to ship to the Moon . However , it might be an important next step for the future abode of the Moon . Before it gets to the Moon , it might be deploy to sublimate pee and make it drinkable here on Earth .

“ dead that is one of the goals , ” Dr Christian told IFLScience . “ That is a big part of the challenge as well because of line everything we do for infinite , we want it to assist us here on Earth as well . Anywhere you necessitate light-headed , summary urine - purifying equipment , this will also have a estimable impact there . That might be in remote communities , or for industrial runoff , or many different type of potential covering . ”

There have been some fascinating proposition late on how to easily use what we find on the Moon . Fromcreating roadsusing lasers and electron lens to havingflexible rail tracksthat can be used by robots , to 3D printing brick using regolith … well , at leastin LEGO formfor now .

“ All these really originative things are quite exciting thing to see for the future tense of when we are give way to have humans living and working on the Moon again . And that ’s just a modest part of what ’s going to be a whole entire ecosystem . The first thing that we that we are doing is building a communication navigation arrangement in domain around the Moon . ”

Such a program , calledMoonlight Initiative , is being educate by the European Space Agency , in coaction with other organization such as the Italian Space Agency , the UK Space Agency , and NASA .