Suara.com – The explorer robot belonging to the United States Space Agency (NASA) on Mars, Perseverance, capable of “making oxygen” from the planet’s carbon dioxide.
The oxygen-making process is carried out in a toaster-sized device called a Moxie.
It is a device inherent in Perseverance, which harnesses resources on Mars to generate oxygen.
Moxie creates five grams of oxygen. ,
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This much oxygen allows astronauts to breathe on Mars for about 10 minutes.
NASA hopes that astronauts will be able to carry an oxygen-generating device larger than Moxie’s on assignment to Mars.
The goal, astronauts do not need to carry oxygen from Earth to survive on the red planet.
Oxygen is also an important part of the chemical mechanism that drives rockets.
The thrust is achieved by burning the fuel in the oxidizer, which can be simple oxygen.
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The atmosphere of Mars is dominated by carbon dioxide at a concentration of 96%. On that planet, oxygen is only 0.13%. For comparison, the total oxygen concentration on Earth reaches 21%.
Moxie is able to release oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules consisting of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.
The two-component waste product is carbon monoxide, which is discharged into the Martian atmosphere.
The NASA research team operated Moxie in various modes to determine its effectiveness.
They are targeting Moxie to produce up to 10 grams of oxygen in one hour.
“Moxie is not only the first instrument to produce oxygen on another planet,” said Trudy Kortes, director of proving technology affairs at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
“But Moxie is also the first technology that will support astronauts on future space missions to survive utilizing local environmental elements, known as resource exploitation. in-situ, “said Kortes.
“Moxie takes the unsolved layer on Mars, a substance you find in soil, then processes it into large structures or takes carbon dioxide and converts it to oxygen.
“This process allows us to convert this abundant material into usable objects such as propellants, air to breathe, or mix it with hydrogen to become water,” Kortes said.
NASA has recorded important milestones in recent weeks, including flying their mini helicopter over Mars, Ingenuity, for less than a minute.
Mini helicopters make history when they can be flown and controlled from other planets.
NASA wants to carry out a follow-up test, by flying the Ingenuity up to five meters above the ground, moving sideways two meters, turning around, taking a few shots, before returning to the take-off area for landing.
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