NASA Generates Oxygen on Mars

American space agency NASA announced on Wednesday that its oxygen-generating experiment accompanying the Perseverance rover has successfully generated oxygen on Mars. The microwave-size device named MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment) developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) generated generated oxygen for the 16th and final time aboard the Perseverance rover, NASA said in its blog.

It converted Martian CO2 into oxygen. This could help in future human missions to Mars, NASA tweeted.

According to NASA, MOXIE has been generating oxygen aboard the Perseverance rover since its landing in 2021. It has produced a total of 122 grams of oxygen, which is twice as much as NASA’s original goals for the instrument. The oxygen produced is of 98% purity or better. So, it can be used for both fuel and breathing purposes.

MOXIE works by using an electrochemical process to separate one oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide in Mars’ thin atmosphere.