Posted on 04/22/2021 10:25:17 AM PDT by BenLurkin
After making the first-ever powered flight on another world, NASA's Mars 2020 mission has managed another key first that could pave the way for future astronauts by making breathable oxygen out of the wispy Martian air.
NASA announced that an instrument aboard the rover had successfully extracted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on Mars and then electrochemically split oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules.
The Martian atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide. The remainder is mostly nitrogen and argon.
The feat, announced Wednesday, is considered vital to any long-term stay for humans on Mars, as bringing an ample supply of oxygen from Earth would likely prove impractical. It came ahead of a second successful test of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, after its historic maiden flight on Monday.
The second flight "reached new milestones of higher altitude, a longer hover and lateral flying," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a tweet.
Go big or go home! The #MarsHelicopter successfully completed its 2nd flight, capturing this image with its black-and-white navigation camera. It also reached new milestones of a higher altitude, a longer hover and lateral flying. pic.twitter.com/F3lwcV9kH2
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 22, 2021 "MOXIE isn't just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world," Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations with NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate said in a statement. She called it the first technology of its kind to help future missions "live off the land" of another planet.
The Perseverance rover used an instrument known as MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, which super-heated the carbon dioxide to chemically cleave it, producing about 5 grams of pure O2 – about enough for an astronaut to breathe for 10 minutes, according to NASA.
"This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for STMD.
Engineers hope that MOXIE can be scaled up to produce enough oxygen for future human flights to Mars. A group of four astronauts on the red planet would require an estimated one metric ton of oxygen between them to last an entire year, MOXIE principal investigator Michael Hecht, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a NASA news release.
Oxygen produced on Mars could also be used in combination with rocket fuel to propel rockets returning to Earth. NASA estimates that 25 metric tons of oxygen would be needed for such a rocket carrying four astronauts. An industrial-sized MOXIE-style instrument for use on Mars might weigh about a metric ton, Hecht said last year.
On Monday, the twin-rotor Mars helicopter, Ingenuity – part of the Mars 2020 mission that includes the rover and the MOXIE instrument — became the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet.
The 4-pound Ingenuity rose 10 feet in the air, hovered briefly, and landed back on the Martian surface without incident. The helicopter, which has an onboard camera, is still being tested, but more ambitious flights are scheduled as the mission progresses.
95% CO2? Not possible according to global warming doctrine, the planet would be molten rock.
Did it involve a tax?
Headline: Scientists find answer to global warming.
CO2 scrubbers.
Does Mars Oxygen have more or less calories ? LOL
“MOXIE isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world,” Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate said in a statement. She called it the first technology of its kind to help future missions “live off the land” of another planet.
—
“That’s the Atmosphere Processor?”
“Yep, that’s it. Remarkable piece of machinery, completely automated. You know, we manufacture those, by the way.”
―Ripley and Burke, regarding the APP on LV-426 (from Aliens)
And Elon Musk says, I'm on it like a fly on ----
Now if they could only do this on earth all the yentas might stop yenting.
With a byproduct of carbon monoxide that they release back into Mars atmosphere , poor Martians ,LOL
The Martian atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide. ??
And the Planet hasn’t exploded or melted yet?? Paging AlGore
“She called it the first technology of its kind to help future missions “live off the land” of another planet.”
More like “live under the land”, since any manned mission would have to hide in tunnels under the surface to protect them from the deadly radiation.
Ya, they go up there, WTF are they going to do with that?
I am gonna call the Friends of Mars bunch and get them to protest.
I thought Martian oil was primarily super-oxide-lots of oxygen potential locked up in it.
The Martians will send a strongly worded letter to Earth demanding we stop stealing the little oxygen they have left
Also, call Mars First! activists.
95% CO2 and its bloody freezing !
How stupid is NPR and today’s NASA?
If I can do this I don’t even need an atmosphere. My own exhalation can be recycled. Seems more useful on the Moon.
Now, for fuel O2 for a return to Earth, that may be a different story. But, who would want to come back.
Where is the KABOOM?
There was supposed to be an Earth shattering KABOOM.
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