The mission to “manufacture” oxygen on Mars has been completed

a NASA It reported on Wednesday (6) that the MOXIE instrument, mounted on the Perseverance chassis, has successfully completed its mission to Mars. And the little oxygen generator did its job for the 16th and last time, proved its effectiveness with flying colors, and indicated that perhaps one day astronauts would breathe easy on the Red Planet.

MOXIE (Mars Oxygen Resource Utilization Experiment) is a small, but capable instrument that separates an oxygen atom from carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules – the main component of the Martian atmosphere, which accounts for 90% of the total. There, only the oxygen is left, that is, in an irrelevant amount.

In carbon dioxide molecules, there are two oxygen atoms for every carbon atom, which allows MOXIE (and its eventual successors) to generate a good amount of the essential element for our breathing. Since 2021, the device has produced a total of 122 grams of oxygen, enough for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours.

It has already come to pay your executions 12 grams of oxygen per hour, twice the NASA target, with the final round managing to get 9.8 grams. Of course, this is just a test of the concept, just like the Ingenuity helicopter (which has already completed its testing). Flight number 56 through the atmosphere of MarsBy the way), but a successful mission will lead engineers to build more powerful oxygen generators.

It has also been proven that MOXIE produces oxygen at any timeBe it day or night, no matter the temperature. However, there are more favorable times, such as spring, when carbon dioxide levels are highest on Mars. So the mission team decided to test the tool to its limit, which is also essential to see how long the technology maintains its effectiveness.

In order to provide oxygen to future colonists on Mars, MOXIE’s successors will also need to store the gas, so MIT engineers (the creators of the instrument) intend to create a large-scale system that can liquefy, protect and release oxygen. .As needed.

source: NASA

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