The North American Perseverance robot, which has been on Mars for a year and a half, managed to produce breathable oxygen from carbon dioxide, in an experiment that gives perspective to a possible human survival on the inhospitable planet, it was announced on Wednesday.
The results of the experiment, which produced seven times more oxygen per hour than that generated by a small tree on Earth, are described in an article. published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
Mars, where the United States aims to land astronauts in the 2030s, has a thin atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, making it an unbreathable planet.
One of the instruments on board the robotic vehicle Perseverance (Perseverance), which the US space agency (NASA) landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, managed to produce breathable oxygen during the day and night and during the various Martian seasons.
The lunchbox-sized instrument, named Moxie (whose initials of the word refer to experience), demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to use resources from a planet (in this case, carbon dioxide) to produce in the place resources (oxygen) that would otherwise have to be transported from Earth.
According to scientists, a larger, improved version of Moxie could be sent to Mars, ahead of a human mission, to continuously produce oxygen equivalent to that generated by several hundred trees.
With that capacity, the instrument could generate enough oxygen to support an inhabited facility on Mars and produce fuel for astronauts to return to Earth, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the United States, which participates in the experience.
How was oxygen produced?
The current version of Moxie was designed to fit inside the Perseverance robot and to run for short periods of time, turning it on and off with each experience.
The instrument was turned on remotely seven times over the course of the Martian year (a year on Mars is 687 days, which corresponds to almost two years on Earth). Each time it was turned on, the device took a few hours to warm up and then an hour to produce oxygen before shutting down.
In the experiment, Martian air was filtered, pressurized and fed into another instrument that electrochemically splits carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen and carbon monoxide ions.
The oxygen ions are then isolated and recombined to form breathable molecular oxygen, which Moxie measures for quantity and purity before releasing it harmlessly into the air, along with carbon monoxide and other gases.
Scientists plan to test the instrument’s capabilities at dawn and dusk, when the temperature on Mars changes substantially, and in spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide levels are high.
Source: TSF
