MOXIE made 122 grams of oxygen from Martian carbon dioxide, testing a process relevant to both breathing and a return rocket.
Article
A small oxygen factory travelled inside a Mars rover. Called MOXIE, the roughly battery-shaped device drew in local air and extracted oxygen from its carbon dioxide. It did not open a tank brought from Earth: it made oxygen from material already on Mars.
MOXIE operated 16 times aboard Perseverance between 2021 and 2023. NASA reported a total output of 122 grams of oxygen. That is modest compared with the needs of a long-term human base, but the experiment aimed to process the actual atmosphere and obtain a result.
At high temperature, an electrochemical reaction splits carbon dioxide. Separated oxygen atoms pair up to form oxygen molecules. The highest production rate recorded in the experiments was 12 grams per hour, with oxygen purity of at least 98 percent.
Oxygen is needed for more than astronauts’ breathing. A rocket leaving Mars also needs oxygen as an oxidizer to burn its fuel. Producing and storing it locally could reduce the cargo that must be sent from Earth for the return journey.
Supplying oxygen on a human-mission scale would require larger production equipment as well as liquefaction and storage. MOXIE’s 122 grams were an early experimental result toward that goal: material for a future return rocket, extracted from the Martian air drawn into a rover.
Sources and editorial notes
NASA · MOXIE completes its Mars mission
NASA · Is There Oxygen on Mars?
Editorial note: Facts were checked against the linked material. Interpretations are MUADAILY’s editorial perspective. Image: NASA · Public domain · MOXIE being installed in the rover on Earth.
Machine-translated from Korean. Read the original.
