The engineers in charge of Moxie will now conduct more tests and try to increase this result. The tool has been developed to be able to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour. For his first experiment, Moxie produced 5 grams of oxygen, enough to breathe for 10 minutes for an astronaut with normal activity. Designed at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Moxie was manufactured with heat-resistant materials to tolerate the scorching temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius required for its operation.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (Moxie) is a golden box the size of a car battery, located at the front right of the rover. Not only could the process produce oxygen for future astronauts to breathe, it could also prevent the large amounts of oxygen needed to propel the rocket on the return trip from Earth.
It uses electricity and chemistry to split CO2 molecules, producing oxygen on one side and carbon monoxide on the other. The demonstration took place on April 20 and NASA is hoping that future versions of the experimental tool used can pave the way for exploration by humans.
Source Perseverance landed on the Red Planet on February 18. Its mission: to look for traces of ancient life.
According to MIT engineer Michael Hecht, a one-ton Moxie – this weighs 17 kilograms – could produce the roughly 25 tons of oxygen needed for a rocket to take off from Mars. may be easier than extracting ice from beneath its surface to make oxygen by electrolysis. A thin layer of gold prevents it from radiating this heat and damaging the rover.
The News Highlights
- Perseverance Rover Produces Oxygen on Mars | Voice of america
- Check the latest Gaming news updates and information about games.
- Please share this news with your friends and family to support us your one share helps us a lot.
- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, for similar updates.