Oxygen made on Mars in Nasa experiment could help explorers survive there
The Nasa experiment known as Moxie has shown oxygen can be generated from the atmosphere, a result with ‘historic’ implications for future exploration.
A small device no bigger than a toaster has generated oxygen on the surface of Mars, bringing the chances of surviving on the red planet a step closer.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment, better known as Moxie, has been generating oxygen from the atmosphere on Mars, rich in carbon dioxide, as part of Nasa’s Perseverance rover mission, which began in February last year.
Research published in the journal Science Advances reported that Moxie produced breathable oxygen in seven hour-long tests conducted in various weather and atmospheric conditions since landing last year.
During each test, the device produced 6g of oxygen, about the same as a small tree and enough to sustain an astronaut for 15 minutes. The research found that even in extreme temperatures and after a Martian dust storm, Moxie continued to produce high-purity oxygen.
“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission,” Jeffrey Hoffman, a retired astronaut, said.
Hoffman, 77, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) aeronautics department, said the results were “historic”.
Nasa and the MIT team are planning to build a bigger version of Moxie. They hope advanced models will produce enough oxygen to support a crewed mission to Mars and generate the gas needed to send a rocket back to Earth.
“To support a human mission to Mars we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth,” Hoffman said.
“But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it. You’re way ahead of the game.”
The thin atmosphere on Mars is 96 per cent carbon dioxide and much more variable than on Earth. “The density of the air can vary by a factor of two through the year, and the temperature can vary by 100 degrees,” Hoffman said. “One objective is to show we can run [Moxie] in all seasons.”
The device uses pumps that suck in carbon dioxide. The gas is heated to 800C and compressed to separate the carbon and oxygen. Carbon monoxide is emitted as waste while the pure oxygen is left behind.
Scaling up the device to support a human mission to Mars presents challenges. Nasa and MIT say Moxie would need to run continuously for 400 days, a leap from the one-hour tests. The machine would require insulation to control its internal temperature.
Moxie has proved durable in the extreme conditions on Mars, however, and the team plans to assess the machine’s limits in the coming months.
“The next run coming up will be during the highest density of the year,” Michael Hecht, of the MIT Haystack Observatory and co-leader of the Moxie project, told New Scientist.
“We want to make as much oxygen as we can. We’ll set everything as high as we dare and let it run as long as we can.”
The team will pay particular attention to how Moxie operates through the Martian spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide levels are high. It is currently early winter at the Perseverance landing site.
Parallel testing will continue in a laboratory on Earth to simulate conditions on the red planet as the project looks to expand the machine to about a cubic metre in size. Despite the challenges, Hecht hailed the test results as a leap forward. He said: “At the highest level, this is just a brilliant success.”
The Times
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