Oxygen on Mars? It's happening! NASA's Perseverance rover was recently able to produce oxygen on Mars at the same rate as a single tree on Earth.
Inside Perseverance sits a small, golden box called MOXIE. This device has been making oxygen from Martian air. In fact, it is working so well that the team behind MOXIE says that its oxygen output is the same as the rate of a modest tree's oxygen output here on Earth.
On Wednesday, these findings were outlined in the journal Science Advances. Data from the end of 2021 shows that MOXIE was able to successfully reach its oxygen output target of six grams per hour during seven separate experiments, and in differing atmospheric conditions - be it day or night, various Martian seasons, and many such things.
"The only thing we have not demonstrated is running at dawn or dusk, when the temperature is changing substantially," Michael Hecht, the lead researcher on MOXIE mission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory said in a press release.
"We do have an ace up our sleeve that will let us do that, and once we test that in the lab, we can reach that last milestone to show we can really run any time," Hecht added.
This is especially fantastic news for astronauts of the future who may be pushed into difficult alien terrain for exploration purposes and might need such artificial oxygen generation methods... of course, on a larger scale if human colonies are to be served.
Also read:?Not Just Red: NASA Rover Finds Traces Of Green Sand On Mars
When NASA's Artemis series of missions put humans back on Moon again, the space agency will shift focus to Mars. That's when MOXIE's capabilities might come in handy. The device is super small, and with a larger scale, scientists might be able to make it produce a lot more oxygen than the current six grams per hour.
Also read:?Explorers Could Make Oxygen On Mars From Carbon Dioxide Using Plasma
Researchers think that with more study of MOXIE, oxygen may be produced akin to the rate of several hundred trees to sustain humans on Mars and fuelling rockets to bring them back to Earth.
What do you think about this fantastic feat in space? Let us know in the comments below.?For?more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.??
References
MIT¡¯s MOXIE experiment reliably produces oxygen on Mars. (2022). EurekAlert!?
Ravisetti, M. (2022, August 31). ¡°Historic¡± Mars Experiment Produces Oxygen at the Rate of 1 Earth Tree. CNET.?