Extra-terrestrial mining apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus and method for producing and storing elemental Oxygen on the lunar surface where it can be used by humans to establish and maintain colonies. The Oxygen is produced by robotic miners who strip mine the lunar fines from the surface, subject them to an initial screening step for size, and then refine them through a series of steps to produce elemental Oxygen, elemental Silicon, elemental Titanium, elemental Aluminum, elemental Iron, elemental Calcium, elemental Magnesium and smaller amounts of Sodium and Potassium. The refined Oxygen can be stored in solid form as ingots or pellets or powder as long as it is not subjected to warmth. To prevent sublimation and for human convenience, the robotic mining apparatus can be programmed to produce bottles of the elemental silicon and caps of the Aluminum. It could then place Oxygen inside the bottles and cap them before storing them conveniently in a shady place.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.