On the red and dusty surface of #Mars, nearly 100 million miles from Earth, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree.
The Mars #Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successfully making oxygen from the Red Planet's carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere since February 2021, when it touched down on the Martian surface as part of #NASA's #Perseverance rover mission.
In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the end of 2021, MOXIE was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs, in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons. In each run, the instrument reached its target of producing six grams of oxygen per hour -- about the rate of a modest tree on Earth.
The current version of MOXIE is small by design, in order to fit aboard the Perseverance rover, and is built to run for short periods, starting up and shutting down with each run, depending on the rover's exploration schedule and mission responsibilities. In contrast, a full-scale oxygen factory would include larger units that would run continuously.
Despite the necessary compromises in MOXIE's current design, the instrument has shown it can reliably and efficiently convert Mars' atmosphere into pure oxygen. It does so by first drawing the Martian air in through a filter that cleans it of contaminants. The air is then pressurized, and sent through the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE), that electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide.
The oxygen ions are then isolated and recombined to form breathable, molecular oxygen, which MOXIE then measures for quantity and purity before releasing it back into the air.
Since the rover's landing in February 2021, MOXIE engineers have started up the instrument seven times throughout the Martian year. Each run was scheduled for a different time of day or night, and in different seasons, to see whether MOXIE could accommodate shifts in the planet's atmospheric conditions.
So far, MOXIE has shown that it can make oxygen at almost any time of the Martian day and year.
Researchers envision that a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission, to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees. At that capacity, the system should generate enough oxygen to both sustain humans once they arrive, and fuel a rocket for returning astronauts back to Earth.
So far, MOXIE's steady output is a promising first step toward that goal.
Materials: NASA

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