NASA’s Perseverance Rover Produced Oxygen on Mars

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NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully created oxygen from the thin atmospheric carbon dioxide present on Mars for the first time.

• Perseverance landed on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021 on a mission to search for signs of microbial life.

About

• In its first run, Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment — or MOXIE produced 5 grams of oxygen, equivalent to about 10 minutes of breathable oxygen.
  • The MOXIE is a golden box about the size of a car battery that is located inside the front right side of the rover.
  • It was built with heat-resistant materials like nickel alloy and designed to tolerate the searing temperatures of 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius) required for it to run.
  • It is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour and is placed inside the Perseverance rover. 

Process of producing oxygen

• On Mars, carbon dioxide makes up ~96% of the gas in the planet’s atmosphere. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared to 21% in Earth’s atmosphere. 
• It is dubbed a “mechanical tree as it inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen
• To produce oxygen,it separates oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms.
• This process occurs at extremely high temperatures of approximately 800 degrees Celsius and in the process also produces carbon monoxide as a waste product, which it releases in the Martian atmosphere.

Significance

• A substantial amount of oxygen supply on Mars is essential for crewed missions that plan to go there.
• The oxygen can also be used for rockets to use as fuel while coming back to Earth.
• The manned missions on Mars would become significantly easier if the liquefied oxygen can be produced on the Red Planet. 

Source:IE