Italy is taking impressive strides toward extracting oxygen from lunar soil, thanks to a pioneering initiative by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian company OHB Italia. On June 28, 2025, they finalized a contract to create "ORACLE" (Oxygen Retrieval Asset for Carbothermal Lunar Extraction): a compact device intended to harvest breathable oxygen directly from lunar regolith—the fine dust and rocky fragments coating the Moon’s surface.

Regolith, a blend of dust, crushed rock, and debris, commonly overlays terrestrial planets, their moons, and asteroids. The Moon’s version is especially abundant and exposed, due to a lack of atmosphere and constant bombardment by meteoroids.