This Mars Rover Has Oxygen-Making Technology from Carbon Dioxide

NASA's Rover Perseverance was launched onto the Red Planet on July 30. This interplanetary explorer has been tasked with conducting several tests and experiments whose results can be used to understand whether humans can survive on Mars.

Now, equipped with a technology called Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), the Perseverance rover will try to produce a very valuable "asset" for humans, namely oxygen.

Also Read: Where Does the Liquid on Mars Come From? Researchers Find New Clues

On the planet Mars, oxygen only fills 0.2% of the atmosphere, in contrast to Earth, which has 21% oxygen. Therefore, it is very difficult to breathe on Mars. Humans might be able to carry oxygen cylinders, but that would produce a very heavy payload and complicate the mission. Seeing this, NASA focused on facilitating their mission on Mars by making their own oxygen there.

Reporting from IFL Science, the MOXIE technology carried out by Preserverance is a test of an actual device that will one day be sent to Mars. This technology converts carbon dioxide (which makes up 95% of the Martian atmosphere) by electrochemically splitting it into oxygen and carbon monoxide. It then combines free oxygen to make O2.

In this case, MOXIE will pump oxygen and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Scientists say the oxygen and carbon monoxide that will be produced later will not change the planet's atmosphere significantly so it is not a cause for concern.

"If you release carbon monoxide into the Martian atmosphere, it will eventually combine with the tiny amount of remaining oxygen that's there and return to carbon dioxide," said Michael Hecht, principal investigator for MOXIE.

Also read: Mars Occultation to Meteor Rain, This is a Celestial Phenomenon in August 2020

The main goal targeted in the future is to create O2 and then store it in a tank that can be used by humans, as well as for long rocket trips home.

Humans need about 0.5 cubic meters (19 cubic feet) of air per day, while according to NASA, MOXIE will only be able to create about 0.03 cubic meters (1.2 cubic feet) of "Earth air".

Experiments will continue throughout the Perseverance mission. The rover will immediately try to convert CO2 when it arrives on Mars, estimated on February 18, 2021.

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