The prospect of sending humans to Mars has just taken a big leap forward. MIT researchers have confirmed that an experiment on the Red Planet produced oxygen under a variety of atmospheric conditions.
The atmosphere of Mars being is almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide. For several months, scientists have been trying to find a way to produce oxygen on the red planet in order to support future manned missions, including the premiere could take place in the 2030s.
NASA’s current mission to Mars, who landed the Perseverance rover on the planet in February 2021took with her MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), a technology demonstration led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aimed at creating oxygen on Mars. The lunchbox-sized instrument succeeded in its quest in April, becoming the first machine to produce oxygen on another planet. On the other hand, the news this week could not be more promising.
Creating oxygen on Mars in “any condition”: successful bet
MOXIE’s achievements from last April are exceptional in themselves, but this week’s progress is even more so. Scientists have confirmed that they have succeeded in making oxygen through seven experimental trials carried out in a variety of atmospheric conditionsincluding during day and night and through different martian seasons.
The report, published on the MIT website, states that in each of its seven tests, MOXIE successfully met its target: produce six grams of oxygen per hourthe rate of an average tree on Earth.
This huge success gives scientists hope that a larger and more powerful version of MOXIE could one day be deployed for a manned mission to Mars, giving astronauts breathable air and eliminating the need to transport oxygen from Earth.
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MOXIE’s work also helps engineers learn more about how isolate and store oxygen on Marsa vital process for launching rockets from the planet’s surface to bring astronauts home.
According to MIT, MOXIE works its magic by first drawing Martian air through a filter to remove contaminants. The air is then pressurized and sent through an instrument called the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE), which electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide. The oxygen ions are then isolated and recombined to form breathable molecular oxygen.
The team said they have yet to demonstrate the technology at dawn and dusk, when the temperature changes dramatically, but they are confident they can pull it off.
Source : WITH