NASA's Centennial Challenge MoonROx

If you can squeeze Oxygen from a pile of Moon dirt, NASA has a $250,000 for you. Specifically, you must extract breathable oxygen from simulated lunar regolith (that's DIRT to us layman) by June 1, 2008.
The idea of extracting usable materials from lunar soil, composite materials for fuel, water and other resources for instances, is hardly new.
The idea of starting an Ansari X-Prixe race to see who can do it first, is. NASA and the Florida Space Research Institute are offering the contest as part of their Centennial Challenges which present exciting opportunities to earth-bound inventors.

Here's a little snippet from a story at SpaceDaily.com:



For the MoonROx challenge, teams must develop hardware within mass and power limits that can extract at least five kilograms of breathable oxygen from simulated lunar soil during an eight-hour period.
The soil simulant, called JSC-1, is derived from volcanic ash. The oxygen production goals represent technologies that are beyond existing state-of-the-art.
NASA's Centennial Challenges promotes technical innovation through a novel program of prize competitions. It is designed to tap the nation's ingenuity to make revolutionary advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and NASA goals.

The ability to produce some resources from the environment is a key part of extra-terrestrial exploration. Astronauts can't take everything with them. Limits on lifting capability, weight, and cargo space, make it impossible. The result is a renewed push to create tools that will help future Space explorers get what they need from wherever they are.

Right now scientists believe water will be much easier to find on the Moon than first suspected. Read this story to find out more.

Crazy though, huh? Just a few short steps until living on the lunar surface is Old Hat. Wow.