NASA Rover Makes Breathable Oxygen From Martian Atmosphere

Breathing on another planet? Although Mars oxygen may seem like science fiction at first blush, NASA’s latest work might pave the way for having breathable air in future missions.

For the first time, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has produced oxygen by converting some of the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere through an experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), which overheated the carbon dioxide to split it chemically.

Providing breathable air to astronauts

What makes this development breakthrough is that it might pave the way for storing oxygen on the Martian surface to help power rockets and lift astronauts off the planet. It is also important in terms of the possibility that it might provide astronauts breathable air for future manned missions.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“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,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

Oxygen on Mars, of which its atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, is not only required to breathe, but rockets also need this gas as future astronauts will depend on it to produce propellant to make their trip back home.

But this would be an uphill struggle given the fact that getting four astronauts off the Martian surface requires 7 metric tons rocket fuel and 25 metric tons of oxygen. “The astronauts who spend a year on the surface will maybe use one metric ton between them,” added Michael Hecht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The US space agency said in a statement that transporting 25 metric tons of oxygen from Earth to Mars would be an “arduous task.” Hauling an instrument like MOXIE that might separate oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules, however, would be “far more economical and practical,” the agency noted.

Following the separation process, carbon monoxide is emitted into the Martian atmosphere as a waste product.

Credit: MIT Haystack Observatory

The obtained amount of Mars oxygen

As for MOXIE’s technology demonstration on the Red Planet, it began producing oxygen at a rate of 6 grams per hour, and this production was reduced two times to see the status of the instrument as seen on the graphic above.

About 5.4 grams of oxygen were produced following an hour of operation. According to the NASA scientists, it is enough to keep astronauts in good condition for approximately 10 minutes.

MOXIE is slated to extract Mars oxygen at least nine more times over the next two years. It is not just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world. This tool is also the first-of-its-kind technology that will help astronauts on future missions live off the planets using elements of the world’s environment – an attempt known as in-situ resource utilization, NASA underscored.

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“It’s taking regolith, the substance you find on the ground, and putting it through a processing plant, making it into a large structure, or taking carbon dioxide – the bulk of the atmosphere – and converting it into oxygen,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations within STMD.

“This process allows us to convert these abundant materials into useable things: propellant, breathable air, or, combined with hydrogen, water,” Kortes added.

About Perseverance’s mission to Mars

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance landed Feb. 18 on the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater, which is believed it was the home to microbial life.

It will seek the signs of past life, characterizing the planet’s geology and its past climate. Collecting rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth is among the Perseverance’s tasks.