{"id":11729,"date":"2021-04-22T18:35:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T10:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/in-another-first-nasas-perseverance-rover-generates-oxygen-on-mars\/"},"modified":"2021-04-22T18:35:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T10:35:30","slug":"in-another-first-nasas-perseverance-rover-generates-oxygen-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/in-another-first-nasas-perseverance-rover-generates-oxygen-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"In another first, NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover generates oxygen on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
This view from the Perseverance rover\u2019s navigation cameras shows the \u201cMars 2020\u201d and \u201cPerseverance\u201d name plates on the vehicle\u2019s robotic arm. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In another first, an instrument inside NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere of Mars, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts \u201clive off the land\u201d by generating their own rocket fuel and breathing air.<\/p>\n

The milestone for the Perseverance rover\u2019s Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, one of the six-wheeled robot\u2019s seven instruments. The rover\u2019s other experiments study the Martian environment, while MOXIE is a pure technology demonstration.<\/p>\n

NASA said Wednesday the MOXIE instrument \u2014 about the size of a toaster oven \u2014 succeeded in generating oxygen on Mars. The instrument works by ingesting carbon dioxide, which makes up about 96% of the Martian atmosphere, and separating one of the molecules\u2019 oxygen atoms from a second oxygen atom and carbon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,\u201d said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s space technology mission directorate, which partnered with NASA\u2019s human spaceflight division to develop the MOXIE instrument. \u201cMOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The instrument emits carbon monoxide, the waste product left over after the conversion, back into the Martian atmosphere. Future missions, including astronaut explorers, could use a similar process to generate tons of oxygen to use as rocket propellant and breathable air.<\/p>\n

\u201cOxygen isn\u2019t just the stuff we breathe,\u201d Reuter said. \u201cRocket propellant depends on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on producing propellant on Mars to make the trip home.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA said the MOXIE instrument completed its first trial run Tuesday, April 20. Over the course of about an hour, the instrument produced 5.4 grams of oxygen, enough for an astronaut to breathe for about 10 minutes, according to NASA. The agency said MOXIE is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s illustration of the location of the MOXIE instrument inside the Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to strip oxygen out of carbon dioxide molecules, MOXIE heats the gas to a temperature near 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius), according to NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo accommodate this, the MOXIE unit is made with heat-tolerant materials,\u201d NASA said. \u201cThese include 3D-printed nickel alloy parts, which heat and cool the gases flowing through it, and a lightweight aerogel that helps hold in the heat. A thin gold coating on the outside of MOXIE reflects infrared heat, keeping it from radiating outward and potentially damaging other parts of Perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A future human expedition to Mars would need a scaled-up oxygen generation unit. A rocket powerful enough to launch astronauts off the surface of Mars would need about 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of fuel and 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of oxygen, NASA said.<\/p>\n

The astronauts would need less oxygen to breathe. Four astronauts might require about a metric ton of breathable oxygen in a year, said Michael Hecht, the MOXIE instrument\u2019s principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Haystack Observatory.<\/p>\n

The MOXIE instrument is the first experiment on Mars to prove out technologies for in situ resource utilization, where missions rely on natural materials on other planets to live off the land. Other resources that future astronauts could use include rocks and soil to help create structures, or water from ice deposits.<\/p>\n

NASA plans nine more oxygen generation runs on the MOXIE instrument over the next two years. The experiments will test the instrument\u2019s performance at different temperature settings, and measure how MOXIE works at different times of day on Mars.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This view from the Perseverance rover\u2019s navigation cameras shows the \u201cMars 2020\u201d and \u201cPerseverance\u201d name plates on the vehicle\u2019s robotic arm. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech In another first, an instrument inside NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere of Mars, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1765,1545,403,1183,367,1761,1766,1767],"class_list":["post-11729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-haystack-observatory","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-isru","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-mars","tag-mars-2020","tag-mit","tag-moxie"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}