ORACLE lunar oxygen-extraction payload (Italian Space Agency)
Italian Space Agency (ASI) payload project to demonstrate on the Moon the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith by a carbothermal process. On 23 June 2025 ASI and OHB Italia announced that they had signed an industrial contract under which OHB Italia, as prime contractor, is to design, build and test the payload over the following forty months, up to the flight model; ENEA (chemical-process engineering) and Kayser Italia (control electronics) contribute. The June 2025 releases said the payload would be operated on a future lunar mission that was then being selected. The June 2025 releases identify no lander, launch vehicle or landing date; the October 2024 paper had described launch opportunities in the 2028 timeframe (no earlier than 2028) as the then-target, which the 2025 releases do not repeat.
Objective. Operate on the lunar surface a compact plant, at most 500 x 500 x 500 mm, that uses a carbothermal chemical-physical process to make accessible the oxygen held in oxides in lunar soil, as a field test of the feasibility and efficiency of extracting oxygen from lunar minerals.
This is one payload. It does not inherit the carrier mission's outcome.
Facts
- Kind
- Payload
- Carried by
- Not recorded
- Mission type
- ISRU demonstration
- Target
- MoonNo map point: No host mission or landing site is recorded.
- Launch
- Not recorded
- Phase
- In developmentIn development under the industrial contract announced on 23 June 2025. The releases date the announcement, not the signing itself. An October 2024 paper by ASI and Politecnico di Milano authors named Politecnico di Milano as the partner for the Phase A/B1 then in progress, and ASI's 2025 release says it had signed a 2023 agreement with Politecnico di Milano for the initial design phases. The 2025 statement that a lunar mission was being selected describes that date; it does not establish a host mission today.
- Outcome
- Not applicable
- Why it is included
- Stated resource objective
What comes next
No planned launch or landing date is recorded.
Participants
Operators, payload owners, carriers and customers are recorded separately.
| Organization | Role |
|---|---|
| Italian Space Agency | Payload owner |
| OHB Italia S.p.A. | Payload builder |
Resources and evidence
| Resource | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Oxygen | Targeted |
Dated events
- 2025-06-23
ASI and OHB Italia announce the ORACLE payload contract
On 23 June 2025 the Italian Space Agency and OHB Italia announced that they had signed an industrial contract for ORACLE, under which OHB Italia, as prime contractor, is to design, build and test a lunar oxygen-extraction payload over forty months, up to the flight model. No contract value is given.
Sources (5) and evidence gaps
L’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana e OHB Italia hanno siglato un contratto industriale
Nel corso dei prossimi quaranta mesi, OHB Italia sarà responsabile della progettazione, costruzione e testing
OHB Italia guiderà il progetto in qualità di Prime Contractor
Roma, 23 giugno 2025
per rendere accessibile l’ossigeno presente in forma di ossidi contenuti nel suolo lunare
- No contract value or currency is stated.
- The signing date is not stated separately from the announcement.
Open evidence gaps
- No contract value is stated in the ASI or OHB Italia releases.
- No host lander, launch vehicle, launch date or landing site is identified by the June 2025 releases, which said only that a lunar mission was being selected; the October 2024 paper's target of a launch no earlier than 2028 predates the 2025 contract and is not confirmed by any later source reviewed.
- The IAC-24 paper (October 2024) expands ORACLE as Oxygen Retrieval Asset by Carbothermal reduction in Lunar Environment; ASI's June 2025 release uses Oxygen Retrieval Asset for Carbothermal Lunar Extraction. Neither is established as the sole official expansion.
- No oxygen has been extracted on the Moon by this payload; the 2024 paper's yield figures are design estimates for a limited process time, not test results.
- Politecnico di Milano's role after the 2025 contract is not stated.
- The reviewed releases establish ASI's contracting and payload-owner relationship but do not explicitly identify the funding source; no separate funder role is recorded.
Record history
changes to this record's facts, newest first
| Changed | Field | Was | Now | Reason | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-31 | participants | ASI: payload owner and funder | ASI: payload owner; a separate funder role is not explicitly established by the reviewed releases. | Correction | [1] |
Sources
13 excerpts from 3 publicationsOne web address counts as one publication.
L’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana e OHB Italia hanno siglato un contratto industriale
(Oxygen Retrieval Asset for Carbothermal Lunar Extraction), un sistema innovativo per estrarre ossigeno dalla regolite
Nel corso dei prossimi quaranta mesi, OHB Italia sarà responsabile della progettazione, costruzione e testing
con dimensioni massime di 500 x 500 x 500 mm
per rendere accessibile l’ossigeno presente in forma di ossidi contenuti nel suolo lunare
nel 2023, l’Agenzia aveva sottoscritto una intesa per avviare le fasi iniziali di progettazione di questa tecnologia
la cui prosecuzione e finalizzazione sono oggi affidate a OHB Italia fino alla realizzazione del modello di volo
Il payload sarà poi operato durante una futura missione lunare in corso di selezione
OHB Italia guiderà il progetto in qualità di Prime Contractor
ENEA, per l’ingegnerizzazione del processo chimico; Kayser Italia, per la fornitura dell’elettronica di controllo del piccolo impianto
the Italian Space Agency (ASI) started the ORACLE (Oxygen Retrieval Asset
The partner for the in-progress Phase A/B1 is the Politecnico di Milano
to be launched to the Moon surface NET 2028
Cite this record
SpaceMiningData, “ORACLE lunar oxygen-extraction payload (Italian Space Agency)”, dataset version a00fa2c68a45, built 2026-11-11, https://spaceminingdata.com/missions/asi-oracle.html. Record checked 2026-10-31.