Behind the crater wall, always in shadow, sits the cracking station, where dump trucks bring raw ice and regolith and drop it into machines that crush and heat the material. The water evaporates, and it is captured in a condenser. The leftover regolith gets pushed over the cliff and builds up like a giant landfill, increasing the space on which the cracking station can expand.
Electrolysis breaks the water into gaseous molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen. The gases are sent to individual compressors, converted to cryogenic liquids, and stored in the holding tanks, which have active cooling so that there are no losses.
We’ve towed the tanker over to fill it from the holding tanks, which is a tight fit on the station’s narrow ledge, and we’ll tow it out to the launch site when that’s done. It’s going to be a good haul.