NASA sent the Perseverance Rover to Mars with a bit of bonus technology: a device that can turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, just like trees on earth do.
The device, called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), extracted carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere to produce its first oxygen on Tuesday. It’s a small amount – 5.4 grams, enough to keep an astronaut healthy for 10 minutes – but it’s proof that the technology works on the red planet.
This is good news for the prospect of sending explorers to Mars. Oxygen takes up a lot of space on a spacecraft, and it’s very unlikely that astronauts will be able to bring enough to Mars. They will therefore have to produce their own oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, both to breathe and to refill rockets to return to Earth.
Artist’s concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars.
JPL / NASA
“This is a critical first step in converting carbon dioxide in Mars to oxygen,” Jim Reuter, co-administrator of NASA’s Directorate of Space Technology, said in a press release Wednesday.
“MOXIE has more work to do, but the results of this technology demonstration are full of promise as we reach our goal of seeing people on Mars one day,” he added. “Oxygen is not just the stuff we breathe in. Rockets depend on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on the propellant on Mars to make the journey home.”
The golden box that the experiment contains is about the size of a car battery – only 1% of the size of the device that scientists actually want to send to Mars.
MOXIE descendants were eventually able to produce enough oxygen – about 25 tons – to land four astronauts from the Martian surface. Producing the oxygen on site would save a lot of space, weight, fuel and money for the first trip to Mars.
How MOXIE removes oxygen from the air
Perseverance’s ‘selfies’ on Mars.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
This is not the only technological first of the Perseverance Mission this week. Another experiment that took it to Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter, made history when it flew above the Martian surface for the first time on Monday.
“Technical demonstrations are a very, very critical part of our portfolio,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s co-administrator, told Insider ahead of the Ingenuity flight. “It basically enables new tools in our toolbox.”
Perseverance took a ‘selfie’ with the Ingenuity helicopter on April 6, 2021.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Seán Doran
NASA expects MOXIE to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere at least nine more times over the next two years. This first attempt is designed to make sure the experiment works. Future runs will test MOXIE’s abilities at different times of the day and during Mars’ seasons. The device is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.
At least MOXIE will not get fuel for these tests. Mars’ atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. The device uses heat and electric currents to divide the CO2 molecules into oxygen (O) and carbon monoxide (CO). Oxygen atoms do not like to be alone for long, so they combine quickly into O2 molecules – the oxygen we breathe.
The final product should be almost pure molecular oxygen: about 99.6% O2.
MOXIE then releases the oxygen as well as the carbon monoxide back into the planet’s atmosphere. However, future purged devices store the oxygen in tanks for later use.
Workers install MOXIE in the chassis of the Perseverance Mars rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on March 20, 2019.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
The conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen is not the only way future Marsland astronauts can live. Scientists and engineers have also suggested using rocks at the site to build structures, or even digging up Mars or moon ice to make drinking water or rocket fuel.
Whatever method he chooses, NASA will have to be inventive to expand human presence in deep space. MOXIE’s success puts another technology in its toolbox.