Researchers have reported that the Martian oxygen production experiment, called Moxie, launched in February 2021, is a success. Scientists managed to generate 6 grams of oxygen per hour — about as much as a small tree on Earth produces.
The Guardian writes about it.
The Moxie device went to the surface of Mars as part of NASAʼs Perseverance rover mission. The researchers suggest that an enlarged version of it could be sent to Mars to continuously produce oxygen for humans who would eventually fly to the Red Planet.
The study notes that by the end of 2021, Moxie was able to produce oxygen during seven series of experiments in different atmospheric conditions — day and night, as well as in different Martian seasons. During each cycle, he achieved his goal of producing 6 grams of oxygen per hour.
"This is the first demonstration of actually taking resources on the surface of another planetary body and chemically transforming them into something that would be useful for a human mission," said Moxieʼs deputy principal investigator, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Jeffrey Hoffman.
The current version of the instrument was made small so that it could fit aboard the Perseverance rover. Now it can work for a short time. A full-scale oxygen plant involves larger machines that would have to operate continuously.
Currently, Moxie can produce oxygen at almost any time of the Martian day and year.
“The only thing we havenʼt demonstrated is working at dawn or dusk when the temperature changes significantly. We have an ace up our sleeve that will allow us to do this, and once we test it in the lab, we can reach the final milestone to show that we really can work at any time," said the principal investigator of the Moxie mission at the observatory MIT Haystack Michael Hecht.
- On August 26, NASAʼs Perseverance Mars rover found volcanic rocks at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Mars. The find was a complete surprise, as the Perseverance rover was expected to land on sedimentary rocks that formed from silt and detritus in an ancient lake in Jesero Crater about 3.7 billion years ago.