If we want to settle on other planets then we have to find out essential gasses like Oxygen and Hydrogen on these planets rather than to bring these gasses from earth to other planets which also expensive. Therefor NASA is in process to make water and these vital gasses on Moon and Mars. In the initial stage of this plan, a rover will land on the Moon in 2018 which will extract hydrogen, water and oxygen and then hopefully Curiosity’s successor will convert CO2 in the atmosphere into oxygen in 2020 when it arrives on Mars.
It is being expected that NASA will put a rover on the Moon that will carry RESOLVE (Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction) science payload. RESOLVE will bring various necessary tools to carry out in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). RESOLVE will also examine the surface (soil) of Moon and heating them up to find out hydrogen and oxygen then these will be combined to make water. There is also water ice on the surface of Moon as some evidence found; RESOLVE will also heat the surface to find out water.
Hopefully another payload will be attached with Curiosity’s Successors as currently being specced by NASA to be launched in 2020. It will suck in the CO2 from the Martian atmosphere, filter out the dust and convert the CO2 in to oxygen.
Going on the process as planned, future mission might include large-scale ISRU devices having capability to produce a significant amount of hydrogen, oxygen, and water on moon and Mars. Definitely, this will be the most advance than the first landed on the Moon in ‘60s. To keep the astronauts alive, there is need of lots of hydrogen, oxygen and water. So it is difficult and expensive to carry out a large amount during space travel.
