Perseverance robotic explorer first produced oxygen on Mars – ČT24 – Czech Television

The robotic explorer used the MOXIE device, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to produce oxygen. Very high temperatures need to be reached to split carbon dioxide. In the first test, which took place on Tuesday, the device was able to produce five grams of oxygen, which would be enough for an astronaut to breathe during normal activity for ten minutes.

“It was the first key attempt to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars,” said Jim Reuter of NASA. In full mode, the device could produce up to ten grams of oxygen per hour. “MOXIE has more work ahead of it, but the results of this technological demonstration are very promising on the way to our goal of seeing people on Mars one day,” he added.

Eight hundred degrees Celsius

The conversion process takes place at temperatures around eight hundred degrees Celsius. That’s why the MOXIE is made of heat-resistant materials and has a thin gold coating that prevents potentially harmful heat from radiating into the Perseverance body.

According to NASA staff, the MOXIE experiments are divided into three phases. The first is to check the equipment. In the second phase, its performance in different atmospheric conditions will be evaluated. The third stage will involve testing new operating modes or comparing operation at different temperatures.

Oxygen production on Mars is crucial not only for astronauts on the planet, but also for rocket propulsion on their way back to Earth. This would greatly simplify the logistics of space missions on the ground. Scientists are also betting on the fission of carbon dioxide because the gas makes up 96 percent of Mars’ atmosphere.

Testing the oxygen production technique is one of the four main scientific targets of the Perseverance explorer, who landed on Mars on February 18. Other goals are to identify environments that may have supported microbial life in the past, to look for signs of former possible life in such environments, and to drill rock and “soil” samples. You should then transport them to Earth for the next mission.

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