Although the ultimate goal of perseverance is to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, this has not stopped the rover from doing other scientific work. On April 20, Perseverance successfully removed carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere and converted it into oxygen, NASA announced on Wednesday. Along with a family portrait of its siblings, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab equipped the transverse engine with a tool called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment or MOXIE for short.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The toaster-sized instrument allowed permeability to separate oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules by heating the gas to about 1470 degrees Fahrenheit and creating carbon monoxide as a by-product. During the first test of the instrument, it yielded about five grams of oxygen or about enough to give a lone astronaut about 10 minutes of breathing air in their suit. According to NASA, the success of the experiment paves the way for future missions, especially those involving human astronauts, as humans as well as the rockets that will transport them to and from the Red Planet need oxygen to work. As NASA puts it, a single rocket with four astronauts will need about 55,000 pounds of oxygen to get off the ground. It is not feasible to transport so much oxygen to Mars. This is where future versions of the technology can help make the planet viable.
The successful experiment follows another historic first for Perseverance and NASA. Earlier this week, the agency flew a plane on another planet when it completed the Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s first test flight. Like MOXIE, Velocity is especially a testament to concept, but it opens the door for future aircraft to explore the Red Planet.
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