India and many nations worldwide are striving to unveil space’s mysteries. Through satellite missions, Mars exploration, and international collaborations, they are working to unlock the secrets of the cosmos. These endeavors inspire curiosity and bring us closer to understand the vast expanse beyond our planet.
Recently, American space agency NASA shared exciting news. They have a special experiment called MOXIE on Mars with the Perseverance rover. This experiment, made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has successfully made oxygen on Mars 16 times. This is a big step in our journey to learn more about the Red Planet and space in general.
NASA’s Deputy Administrator, Pam Melroy, mentioned that MOXIE’s success demonstrates that we can make oxygen from Mars’ air. This oxygen could be used by astronauts in the future for breathing or as fuel for rockets. Developing these technologies is important for our plans to have a lasting presence on the Moon and Mars, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars.
How MOXIE produced oxygen
MOXIE, the machine on the Perseverance rover, has been making oxygen on Mars since it landed in 2021. It does this by taking carbon dioxide from Mars’ thin air and using an electrochemical process to separate one oxygen atom from each carbon dioxide molecule. They check to make sure the oxygen is pure and there’s enough of it when these gases go through the machine.
NASA says that MOXIE made 122 grams of oxygen, which is twice as much as they originally wanted. They also say that the oxygen is really pure, about 98%, so it can be used for breathing and as rocket fuel.
Now that MOXIE has worked well, the next step is to build a bigger system that can make even more oxygen and store it as a liquid.
The director of technology demonstrations at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, Trudy Kortes, is proud of this achievement. She says it’s a big step towards a future where astronauts can use resources on Mars for their missions.
Michael Hecht from MIT, who is in charge of MOXIE, thinks this mission has inspired others who want to use resources from other planets. He believes it shows that NASA is willing to invest in new technologies for the future and that it’s helping the growing space resource industry.
