NASA’s Perseverance Rover Just Made Oxygen On Mars
1 min readTechnicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, California, lower the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the belly of the Perseverance rover. Photo credit: Article b. Huffpost – April 22, 2021.
An experimental device called MOXIE successfully converted some of the red planet’s carbon dioxide into enough oxygen to sustain a human for 10 minutes.
In one “crucial first step” for life on Mars, NASA says an experimental device on its Perseverance rover has made oxygen by using the red planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
The device, called MOXIE, which is roughly the size of a car battery, produced 5.4 grams of oxygen on Tuesday within an hour’s time. That amount is enough to keep an astronaut alive for about 10 minutes of normal activity, NASA said Wednesday.
“This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). “MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars.” […]