Aqualunar Challenge Winner to Advance Lunar Water Purification Technology

Naicker Scientific, a company based in Gloucestershire, UK, has won the grand prize in the Aqualunar Challenge for developing the SonoChem System, a device capable of producing clean drinking water from icy lunar soil. The invention received a £150,000 prize as part of a £1.2 million international competition funded by the UK Space Agency’s international bilateral fund and organized in collaboration with Canadian space agencies.

The technology is designed to address one of the primary hurdles for long-term lunar habitation: the extraction and purification of water from ice-rich regolith, which consists of rocks and dust. According to Meganne Christian, a reserve astronaut and commercial exploration lead at the UK Space Agency, the ability to produce water is essential for astronauts to maintain a reliable supply for drinking, growing food, generating oxygen for air, and creating hydrogen for fuel.

Technical Specifications of the SonoChem System

The SonoChem System utilizes a combination of microwaves and ultrasound to process water extracted from the Moon’s frozen soil. The system is inspired by the technology found in kitchen microwave ovens and incorporates a motorised device originally designed for feeding woodchips into a barbecue.

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The core purification process relies on powerful sound waves to create millions of tiny bubbles in contaminated water. This process generates extreme temperature and pressure within each micro bubble, creating unstable atoms known as free radicals. These highly chemically reactive atoms effectively remove contaminants from the water.

The device is engineered to operate in the extreme conditions of the lunar environment, which include temperatures as low as -200°C, low gravity, and a nearly perfect vacuum, all while functioning with limited electrical power.

Comparison with Other Lunar Purification Innovations

The Aqualunar Challenge evaluated several competing technologies for purifying water on the moon. While Naicker Scientific took the grand prize, other innovative approaches were recognized:

• FRANK (Filtered Regolith Aqua Neutralisation Kit): Developed by RedSpace Ltd, this first runner-up solution uses a three-stage approach. It heats lunar soil in a sealed chamber to separate volatile gases and create a liquid consisting of water, methanol, and regolith fragments. This liquid is then passed through a membrane to remove solids and distilled to separate methanol from the water.
• AquaLunarPure: Developed by Queen Mary University of London, this second runner-up technology uses supercritical water purification. The reactor heats lunar ice to remove dust and rock, then increases the temperature to over 373°C and the pressure to 220 bars. This transforms the water into a fourth state—supercritical water—which appears as a thick vapour and allows oxidation to remove contaminants in a single step.

Broader Applications and Strategic Goals

The development of the SonoChem System aligns with NASA’s objective to establish a permanent crewed base on the moon by the end of the decade. Beyond the lunar surface, the creators of the system believe the technology has applications for other planetary bodies and terrestrial challenges.

If People can make the SonoChem System work there, we can make it work anywhere, whether that’s on Mars’ glaciers, or here on Earth in regions where accessing clean water is still a challenge

Lolan Naicker, Technical Director of Naicker Scientific

The Aqualunar Challenge was specifically designed to drive innovation in water purification technologies that could benefit both space exploration and water accessibility on Earth.