Scientists said this week that during a two-year experiment to see if NASA could make oxygen on Mars, they were able to make enough breathable air to help a small dog survive.
The Mars Perseverance Rover includes the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization) apparatus used to produce oxygen. Pizazz was made to see whether Mars air could deliver oxygen and the machine has been running tests and investigations for quite a long time to investigate the response.
The creators of the device at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed it to support research on human exploration in the future. NASA said in a press release that the device has already produced 122 grams of oxygen, or enough for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours. MOXIE exceeded NASA’s initial expectations by producing 12 grams of oxygen per hour at a purity of 98 percent.
“We’re proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions,” said Trudy Kortes, NASA’s director of technology demonstrations, at NASA Headquarters.
How MOXIE Works
MOXIE uses electromagnetic energy to make molecular oxygen. According to NASA, this process removes one oxygen atom from each carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere of Mars. The device checks the purity and quantity of the oxygen produced when the air passes through it.
The device completed its final and final run on August 7. It made 9.8 grams of oxygen. The device demonstrated its ability to function and sustain itself throughout the year on Mars in all of its conditions.
The Mission Initially
The Mars Determination Meanderer arrived on Mars in 2021. The meanderer has been gathering information about Mars’ topography and past environment for a very long time. NASA claims that the rover’s primary mission objective is to collect water-formed rocks and discover microbial life. Astrobiology is the name given to this process.
A different spacecraft would then collect the rock samples and bring them back to Earth for a more in-depth examination.
What MOXIE’s completion means for the future
Despite the fact that the Mars Perseverance Rover still has a significant amount of work to do, MOXIE has demonstrated that future astronauts may be able to survive using Mars resources.
The next step is to develop a MOXIE 2.0 with a much larger system that can liquefy and store the produced oxygen and complete the same process as the original MOXIE.
