Will we ever be able to drink water from the moon? This Waterloo company thinks so

A Waterloo, Ont., water purifying company is inventing a way to extract and purify water on the moon.

The Canadian Space Agency has chosen WaterPuris as one of the eight semi-finalists in the Aqualunar challenge. The goal of the challenge is to invent low-energy water purifying technology. 

The plan is for the technology to be used on future visits to the moon.

WaterPuris is working to “extract at least like 70 per cent of the water present in the lunar soil and to purify to drinking standard,” Robert Liang, chief technical officer of WaterPuris, told CBC News.

Liang said extracting and purifying water on the moon can enable the growth of food on the moon and can be used to create rocket propellant. 

A process called electrolysis can generate hydrogen and oxygen with the purified water.

“The hydrogen can be used for fuel sources and oxygen can be used to support life systems,” Liang said.

Liang added the low gravity on the moon will require the technology to be tested in low gravity environments, such as the International Space Station. The testing will happen over the next several years.

Vivian Harbers, a challenge prize fellow at the Canadian Space Agency, said the judges looked for innovations that could remove contaminants and were “appropriate for operation on the lunar surface, which of course is very different from operations here on Earth.”

The purified water will enable more ambitious space missions, Harbers said. 

The Aqualunar Challenge began in January and called on Canadian innovators to submit an application in April. The challenge is being put by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with the Privy Council Office’s Impact Canada program.

“We had an amazing response to this challenge and our jury really had their work cut out for them in selecting only eight teams to be selected as semifinalists,” Harbers said.

‘There’s more water than we realize’

The first step of the challenge was to create a concept design. Applicants explained how their solution met the challenge objectives, mission scenario and judging criteria. 

WaterPuris invented a design that uses a heated dome to extract water from soil.

“With a little heat under low gravity, you’re able to vaporize the lunar soil,” Liang said.

The dome uses solar energy to create condensation from the soil and capture the water vapour, he said.

He said that despite the lack of rain on the moon, there’s “concrete evidence that there’s more water than we realize.”

Now, each semi-finalist will receive a $22,500 grant for the next stage of the competition. This will be used to create the key components for their prototype. 

The top four finalists will be chosen in the spring of 2025. Those four will then each receive a grant of $105,000 to submit and test their prototypes within a period of 10 months. 

One finalist will be chosen in the spring of 2026 to receive the grand prize of $400,000. 

The project is not unique to Canada, as the United Kingdom has a similar aqualunar challenge. Harbers said the Canadian semi-finalists and U.K. finalists will be allowed to collaborate. 

She said the two challenges aren’t the same, “in the sense that they’re separate pockets of money and they have distinct aims at each stage.”

Future of water purification

WaterPuris says the moon isn’t the only remote location that needs water purification.

“In Canada, we have the First Nations and Indigenous populations that live in remote communities, and it’s important for us to connect with them and also develop new ways of thinking to provide water to these rural areas,” Liang said. 

He expects to develop an automated self sufficient distillation process from the challenge that would require less maintenance.

“One day they’ll hopefully repair and maintain themselves,” Liang said.