NASA did not delay the planned experiment. It was held on April 20, 2021 – on the 60th Martian day (sol) of the Perseverance rover on a neighboring planet. Namely, oxygen was first extracted there – with the help of improvised means, as they say. Extracted from the local atmosphere, completely unfit for breathing. What the specialists of the American space agency reported on their website.
In an experiment called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), a small device the size of a car battery delivered to Mars extracted oxygen by heating carbon dioxide to a temperature of about 800 degrees Celsius. As a result of a thermochemical reaction, it is possible to “split off” oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules, combine them in pairs into oxygen (O2) molecules and utilize them. A by-product, carbon monoxide (CO), is volatilized into the Martian atmosphere.
In about an hour of operation in test mode, the reservoir of the device sucked in 5.37 grams of oxygen. It would be enough for an ordinary person to breathe for 10 minutes. The real productivity of the “oxygen factory” is 10 grams of oxygen per hour.
Experts intend to conduct 9 more experiments and eventually extract about 100 grams of oxygen.
The gas obtained on the spot will be useful not only for the breathing of future colonists, but also in order to return them to Earth. If anyone wants, of course.
NASA calculated that the return trip requires 25 metric tons of oxygen as an oxidizer for 7 tons of rocket fuel. The fuel will most likely have to be brought from Earth. But oxygen is quite realistic to get directly on Mars. In order not to spend money on its delivery.
Of course, oxygen will no longer be produced by the device that is now “gas” on the neighboring planet, but a much more powerful installation – 10 times larger than the current demonstration.
By the way, for four “Martians”, for example, a ton of oxygen produced by MOXIE would be enough for a year just to breathe, – said the developer of the experiment Michael Hecht from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory.
The current experiment was called by NASA “vital in the direction of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars,” they considered that “the results obtained … bring closer to the goal – to see people on Mars.” But the head of the Institute of Space Policy, Ivan Moiseyev, was not impressed by the success of the Americans. “This is a demonstration experiment, the rover does not need oxygen. This is popularization. Just so that people would be interested, ”he said in an interview with the“ 360 ”TV channel.
REFERENCE “KOMSOMOLKA”
Is there life on Mars? We will not find out earlier than the middle of the 30s of this century.
Let me remind you. Perseverance was gently lowered near the Martian Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. To which the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin quickly reacted with a “greeting card”.
The Jezero Crater, with a diameter of approximately 45 kilometers, is located on the western edge of the Isidis Planitia Plain, which stretches north of the Martian equator. Scientists believe: once upon a time – some 3.5 billion years ago – a river flowed here, flowed into a lake. The crater seems to have formed where there was a prehistoric river delta. In its vicinity, they are going to do the main thing – to look for traces of the past Martian life, collecting samples using the instruments of the rover. Scientists expect to find at least the fossilized remains of the simplest microorganisms.
It is planned to fill several dozen containers: to pack them, then load them into a rocket that will deliver samples to Earth – during another mission called Mars Sample Return. It is scheduled for almost the middle of the 30s of this century.
The drone helicopter Ingenuity, delivered under the “belly” of the rover, made its second flight the other day. During the first – he broke away from the surface, hovered and sat down. And during the second flight, he climbed to a height of five meters, flew off to the side by two meters, then returned to the place where he started. And many, including science fiction writer Lukyanenko, did not believe that the helicopter would take off in the atmosphere of Mars, the density of which at the surface is about 1 percent of the Earth. Set himself, however.
