NASA reported this week, that the Hubble Space Telescope may have found minerals that can be converted to oxygen on the moon.

NASA / ESA / AFP / GETTY

It is the moon’s small mass and low gravity that prevents it from keeping hold of even a tenuously thin atmosphere. But oxygen needn’t exist only in gaseous form above the ground. It can also be entrained safely in certain kinds of rocks. Gather the rubble and either treat it with chemicals or blast it with heat, and you can free up unlimited quantities of oxygen both for breathing and for rocket fuel.