The United States Space Agency (NASA) Perseverance rover continues to make history.
An instrument attached to the six-wheeled rover converted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of Mars into oxygen, the first time this has happened in any other plan.eta, NASA said Wednesday.
“This is a critical first step in converting carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s space technology mission.
The demonstration took place on April 20 and it is expected that subsequent versions of the used experimental instrument will pave the way for human exploration in the future.
Not only can the process produce oxygen so that future astronauts can breathe, it can also prevent large amounts of oxygen from being transported from Earth to use as rocket propellant on the return journey.
The Mars In Situ Oxygen Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is a gold box the size of a car battery and is located on the front right of the rover.
Nicknamed the ‘mechanical tree’, it uses electricity and chemistry to split carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of a carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.
It also produces carbon monoxide as a byproduct.
During the first run, MOXIE produced 5 grams of oxygen, which is equivalent to about 10 minutes of breathing oxygen for an astronaut performing normal activities.
Engineers at MOXIE – designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour – will now conduct further tests and try to improve performance.
Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MOXIE is built with heat resistant materials, such as a nickel alloy, to endure the temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius) required for its operation.
A thin layer of gold keeps it from emitting heat and damaging the rover.
MIT engineer Michael Hecht said a one-ton version of MOXIE could produce the roughly 25 tons of oxygen needed to make a rocket take off from Mars.
Producing oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, consisting of 96% carbon dioxide, could be a more viable option than by extracting ice from beneath the surface and then electrolyzing it.
Perseverance landed on the red planet on Feb. 18 on a mission to look for signs of microbial life.
His Ingenuity mini-helicopter made history this week by making its maiden flight to another planet.
The rover itself recorded the sounds of Mars directly for the first time.