An experiment carried out on Mars has shown that it is possible to extract breathable oxygen from the thin Martian atmosphere.
From its tiny home in the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover, the briefcase-sized In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (ISRU) (MOXIE) has repeatedly shattered Mars’ air molecules to generate a small but constant supply of oxygen.
Today, MOXIE is preparing to retire, after a job well done.
“MOXIE’s impressive performance shows that it is possible to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere – oxygen that could help provide breathable air or rocket propellant for future astronauts,” said Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator.
“Developing technologies that allow us to utilize the resources of the Moon and Mars is essential to establishing a long-term lunar presence, creating a robust lunar economy, and allowing us to support a first human exploration campaign on Mars.”
The MOXIE experiment, designed by MIT scientists, has been underway since Perseverance landed on Mars in February 2021. Not continuously; operators here on Earth have sent commands to MOXIE to see how it works over time under different Martian conditions.
Since then, in 16 trials, MOXIE has produced a total of 122 grams of oxygen. According to NASA, this is enough to keep a small dog breathing for 10 hours – or a human for 4 hours.
It works by electrolysis, using a current to cause an electrochemical breakdown of carbon dioxide into its constituent atoms. MOXIE draws in Martian air through a filter that cleans it. This purified air from Mars is then compressed, heated and sent through the solid oxide electrolyzer (SOXE). The electrolyzer splits carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen ions.
Carbon monoxide is evacuated, but the oxygen atoms are recombined into O2, or molecular oxygen; the kind we need to survive. This gas is then measured for quantity and purity before being vented again.
Each race takes a few hours. After several hours of warm-up, MOXIE recovers oxygen for 1 hour per experiment followed by a power-off period. During this hour of operation, MOXIE is designed to produce up to 10 grams, or approximately 20 minutes of breathable oxygen for an astronaut.
It’s on paper, at least. What he actually managed to produce varied; During its sixteenth operation on August 7, MOXIE extracted approximately 9.8 grams of breathable oxygen, which was quite close to its goal. This shows that, as thin and tenuous as the Martian atmosphere is, it can provide a reserve of oxygen.
Even in a worst-case scenario, a device like MOXIE would be able to supplement other oxygen supplies, reducing the amount of cargo that needs to be transported from Earth.
But with what they learned from MOXIE, researchers led by physicist and MOXIE principal investigator Michael Hecht of MIT, believe they can develop a large-scale system including a new and improved version of the extraction device of oxygen, a means of liquefying this gas. , and a way to store the liquid.
Future Martian explorers will need all the help they can get to become self-sufficient. Between the respiratory needs of a team of astronauts living on Mars for a year and the liquid propellant necessary to power a spacecraft, some 500 tons of oxygen will be needed.
But we will have to wait. Many problems must be tested and resolved before humans attempt a long stay on the Red Planet. Oxygen is just one of them.
“We have to decide which things need to be validated on Mars,” says Hecht. “I think there are a lot of technologies on this list; I’m very happy that MOXIE is first.”
An article on the first 7 performances of MOXIE was published in Scientists progress Last year.
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