GS TIMES STAFF
The US space agency NASA has announced that on April 20, 2021, a device aboard the Perseverance rover was able to produce oxygen from the thin Martian atmosphere for the first time.
- The rover has converted some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen.
- A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task, says NASA.
- The new development could pave the way for science fiction to become science fact – isolating and storing oxygen on Mars to help power rockets that could lift astronauts off the planet’s surface. Such devices also might one day provide breathable air for astronauts themselves.
- According to the NASA, Mars’ atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. MOXIE works by separating oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. A waste product, carbon monoxide, is emitted into the Martian atmosphere.
