The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Space => Topic started by: Kamaji on September 13, 2023, 12:20:56 pm
-
NASA rover generates oxygen out of unbreathable Mars air in red planet breakthrough
By Emilee Speck, FOX Weather
Published Sep. 13, 2023
A breakthrough instrument on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is considered a mission success after producing enough oxygen for a small dog to breathe for about 10 hours.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is a microwave-sized device that takes unbreathable Martian air and turns it into oxygen humans – and dogs – rely on.
The team behind the experimental instrument recently revealed that since Percy landed on Mars, MOXIE has been working like a dream.
MOXIE has generated 122 grams of oxygen since 2021, producing about 12 grams of oxygen an hour.
Because NASA knows we love a good animal analogy, the space agency said this is enough for a small dog to breathe for about 10 hours.
That may not sound like a lot, but this is more than twice the amount of NASA’s initial goal for MOXIE.
The oxygen is also at 98% purity or better.
* * *
Source: https://nypost.com/2023/09/13/nasa-rover-generates-oxygen-out-of-unbreathable-mars-air-in-red-planet-breakthrough/
-
Haha, so we're doing this huh? We'll have huge cities on Mars in a matter of weeks!
-
Haha, so we're doing this huh? We'll have huge cities on Mars in a matter of weeks!
Dusting off my dog eared copy of "The Martian Chronicles"