Mars, too, has water and carbon dioxide, but frankly, more of the latter is what makes up the atmosphere. Again, the only habitable planet for humans is Earth. Mars will kill us without a whole lot of precautions, and we’re still trying to figure out what resources we need to bring and what we can pull in situ, or from the red planet itself.

To that end, an instrument on the Perseverance rover called MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, successfully accomplished what could turn out to be a major first: converted carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen. This is another technology demonstration, like the Ingenuity helicopter, that could turn into something more with further development. However, the question was, “Is further development worth it?” NASA likes to experiment, sure, but they really like things that work before they go into space. And it seems, MOXIE works. As the article states: While the technology demonstration is just getting started, it could pave the way for science fiction to become science fact – isolating and storing oxygen on Mars to help power rockets that could lift astronauts off the planet’s surface. Such devices also might one day provide breathable air for astronauts themselves.

The atmosphere of Mars is 96% carbon dioxide. Again, not good for humans. So MOXIE separates the oxygen atoms out of the carbon dioxide molecules using a high-heat process (800 degrees Celsius). Well, it grabs one oxygen atom. The other one stays with the carbon and is released as carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Still not good for humans, but hey, now we have oxygen we can use to breathe and to make rocket fuel to get back to Earth.

It’s a start anyway.

More Information

NASA press release