'Life on the moon by 2040' with plan for humans to survive off rocks in 'lunar village'

dailystar.co.uk:

Scientists believe they may have found a way to support life on the moon using a machine that extracts oxygen from moon rocks.Unmanned spacecraft would feed the rocks into the machine to be crushed to dust that would be pressed into tablets that can be heated to release oxygen.The oxygen could then be stored in tanks for future use if humans were to create a 'lunar village,' Mirror reports.The European Space Agency has made an £840,000 deal with Thales Alenia Space, an alliance of French and Italian firms, to make a blueprint for the device – made possible by UK scientists.Roger Ward of Thales Alenia Space, which could launch the project in the next two years, said: “We wish to have lunar research stations which are permanent and people can go backwards and forwards from, rather than just go up there every 20 years.“That’s when you start thinking about lunar villages and the need for resources such as oxygen to support that.”British firm Metalysis, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, developed the chemical process that makes extraction possible.Scientists hope the Moon could eventually be used as a refuelling station for deeper space travel.For more incredible stories from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.Mr Ward added: “We should get to the point where going to the Moon is very normal.”The news comes after an image taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover on Mars sent a snap back to Earth which has been described by Twitter users as looking like an alien sex toy or a shoehorn.The multi-faceted robot was launched on November 26, 2011, before landing a year later to explore the Gale crater and gather data for the agency's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.Its most recent image taken from Mars'.