PARIS, Sept 13 — Over the last two years, a small module developed by Nasa and sent to Mars has succeeded in producing over 120 grams of pure oxygen.
This technical feat paves the way for mass production, potentially ensuring oxygen self-sufficiency for astronauts one day working on the ground.
MOXIE (for “Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment”) is a scientific instrument equipped with technology designed to produce oxygen on site, both to help astronauts breathe one day and to serve as a fuel, notably to bring them back to Earth.
The module arrived on Mars in 2021 with the famous Perseverance rover, tasked with collecting samples of the rocks and other materials that make up the Martian soil. Another of its missions is to search for signs of ancient microbial life.
This device has succeeded in producing oxygen 16 times since it arrived on Mars, yielding a total of 122 grams. In theory, this provides just over four hours of breathing for a human being, or around 10 hours for a small dog.
At maximum efficiency, it managed to produce 12 grams of oxygen in one hour, at 98 per cent purity or better. This may not sound like much, but the technological achievement is impressive, especially since MOXIE is no bigger than a regular microwave oven.
Created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), its aim is to extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere using an electrochemical process that separates an oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide collected.
In the future, a larger-scale oxygen production system could assist future missions, notably by serving as a source of the propellant used in the rocket designed to return astronauts to Earth.
The next step would be to create a full-scale system featuring an oxygen generator like MOXIE and a means to liquefy and store that oxygen, Nasa says. — ETX Studio
