Aberdeen firm Wood working on pipeline for the Moon

Aberdeen company Wood is at the heart of a project which may pave the way for a permanently manned base on the Moon.

The engineering and consultancy services giant has teamed up with US firm Lunar Resources to design a crucial pipeline.

It would carry gaseous oxygen from an extraction site on the Moon’s south pole to a proposed lunar base.

Concept artwork for a an oxygen pipeline on the Moon.

According to Wood business development director Stuart Turl, the project is one everyone at the Aberdeen firm wants to be involved in.

Speaking to Energy Voice – sister website to The Press and Journal – at this week’s Subsea Expo in the Granite City, Mr Turl said: “Not satisfied with pipeline design on Earth, we’ve gone slightly further afield.

“There’s real cutting-edge work that’s happening at the moment.

“I think it would be an interesting site visit, put it that way.”

It’s been more than 40 years since anyone set foot on the Moon. Image: Shutterstock

Wood has managed projects involving a total of more than 372,800 miles of pipelines.

Mark Netzel, senior vice-president for upstream and midstream business at the company, said: “To bring our pipeline expertise to the lunar surface is incredibly exciting for us, from both the potential impact it could have on lunar development and the technical challenges we must solve to implement a project this advanced.”

The reduced gravity and vacuum environment will force the team to rewrite the rules on designing pipelines.”

Matthew Laborde, senior pipeline engineering consultant to Lunar Resources

Lunar Resources is a corporate spin-out from various Nasa-sponsored technology development programmes.

Elliot Carol, the Houston firm’s chief executive, said it was “imperative for America” to develop industrial infrastructure on the Moon in advance of a permanent presence.

Mr Carol added: “We are thrilled to team with Wood on the development of the LSPoP (lunar south pole oxygen pipeline)”.

Wood’s pipeline expertise could help put people back on our satellite for the first time in decades. Image: Shutterstock

Lunar Resources chief scientist Peter Curreri said: “The extraction of oxygen on the Moon is essential for lunar operations, however, the transportation of oxygen gas, is a big challenge.

“We estimate the use of robotic rovers to transport gaseous oxygen in gas tanks would use more energy to transport the oxygen than extracting it.”

Project funded by Nasa

According to Matthew Laborde, a senior pipeline engineering consultant to Lunar Resources, the environment of the Moon is “night and day, compared to Earth”.

He added: “The reduced gravity and vacuum environment will force the team to rewrite the rules on designing pipelines.”

London-listed Wood and Lunar Resources have been awarded funding under Nasa’s Innovative Advanced Concepts programme for an initial nine-month feasibility study.