This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover working on the floor of Mars. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Day and night time, and throughout seasons, the instrument reliably generates breathable oxygen from the Purple Planet’s skinny ambiance.
Practically 100 million miles from Earth, on the purple and dusty floor of Mars, an instrument the dimensions of a lunchbox is proving it may well reliably do the work of a small tree.
The MIT-led Mars Oxygen In-Situ Useful resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been efficiently producing oxygen from the Purple Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich ambiance since April 2021. That was about two months after it touched down on the Martian floor as a part of NASA’s Perseverance rover and Mars 2020 mission.
In a examine printed immediately (August 31, 2022) within the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the top of 2021, MOXIE was in a position to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs. These have been carried out in a wide range of atmospheric situations, together with through the day and night time, and thru totally different Martian seasons. In every experimental run, the instrument reached its goal of manufacturing six grams of oxygen per hour. That is in regards to the charge of a modest tree on Earth.
Technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory decrease the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Useful resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the stomach of the Perseverance rover. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scientists envision that a scaled-up model of MOXIE may very well be despatched to Mars forward of a human mission, the place it might repeatedly produce oxygen on the charge of a number of hundred timber. At that capability, the system ought to produce sufficient oxygen to maintain people after they arrive, and likewise gasoline a rocket for returning astronauts again to Earth.
MOXIE’s constant manufacturing to date is a promising first step towards that objective.
“Now we have discovered an incredible quantity that may inform future methods at a bigger scale,” says Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory.
MOXIE’s oxygen manufacturing on Mars additionally represents the primary demonstration of “in-situ useful resource utilization.” That is the thought of harvesting and utilizing a planet’s uncooked supplies (on this case, carbon dioxide on Mars) to make assets (corresponding to oxygen) that will in any other case need to be transported from Earth.
Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) is an exploration know-how investigation that may produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide. Credit score: NASA
“That is the primary demonstration of truly utilizing assets on the floor of one other planetary physique, and reworking them chemically into one thing that will be helpful for a human mission,” says MOXIE deputy principal investigator Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor of the observe in MIT’s Division of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “It’s historic in that sense.”
Hoffman and Hecht’s MIT co-authors embody MOXIE workforce members Jason SooHoo, Andrew Liu, Eric Hinterman, Maya Nasr, Shravan Hariharan, and Kyle Horn, together with collaborators from a number of establishments together with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which managed MOXIE’s growth, flight software program, packaging, and testing previous to launch.
Seasonal air
The present model of MOXIE is small by design, to be able to match aboard the Perseverance rover. It was constructed to run for brief intervals, beginning up and shutting down with every run, relying on the rover’s exploration schedule and mission tasks. In distinction, a full-scale oxygen manufacturing facility for Mars would come with bigger models that will ideally run repeatedly.
Regardless of the mandatory constraints in MOXIE’s present design, the instrument has proven it may well effectively and reliably convert Mars’ ambiance into pure oxygen. It does so by first pulling the Martian air in by way of a filter that cleans it of contaminants. The air is then pressurized, and despatched by way of the Strong OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE). This instrument, which was developed and constructed by OxEon Power, electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide.
MOXIE will gather carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Martian ambiance and electrochemically break up the it into oxygen and carbon monoxide molecules. Credit score: NASA/JPL
The oxygen ions are then remoted and recombined to kind breathable, molecular oxygen, or O2. MOXIE then measures this output for amount and purity earlier than releasing it harmlessly again into the air, together with carbon monoxide and different atmospheric gases.
For the reason that rover’s touchdown in February 2021, MOXIE engineers have began up the instrument seven occasions all through the Martian yr. Every time it takes a number of hours to heat up, then one other hour to make oxygen earlier than powering again down. Every run was scheduled for a distinct time of day or night time, and in numerous seasons, to examine whether or not MOXIE might accommodate shifts within the planet’s atmospheric situations.
“The ambiance of Mars is way extra variable than Earth,” Hoffman notes. “The density of the air can range by an element of two by way of the yr, and the temperature can range by 100 levels. One goal is to point out we will run in all seasons.”
Thus far, MOXIE has demonstrated that it may well make oxygen at nearly any time of the Martian day and yr.
“The one factor we have now not demonstrated is working at daybreak or nightfall, when the temperature is altering considerably,” Hecht says. “We do have an ace up our sleeve that may allow us to try this, and as soon as we take a look at that within the lab, we will attain that final milestone to point out we will actually run any time.”
Forward of the sport
As MOXIE continues to generate oxygen on Mars, engineers plan to push its capability, and enhance its manufacturing, notably within the Martian spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide ranges are excessive.
“The following run developing shall be through the highest density of the yr, and we simply wish to make as a lot oxygen as we will,” Hecht says. “So we’ll set every little thing as excessive as we dare, and let it run so long as we will.”
They can even monitor the system for indications of damage and tear. Since MOXIE is only one experiment amongst a number of aboard the Perseverance rover, it can't run repeatedly as a full-scale system would. As an alternative, the instrument should begin up and shut down with every run. This causes thermal stress that may degrade the system over time.
If MOXIE can function efficiently regardless of repeatedly turning on and off, this might counsel that a full-scale system, designed to run repeatedly, might achieve this for hundreds of hours.
“To assist a human mission to Mars, we have now to carry a variety of stuff from Earth, like computer systems, spacesuits, and habitats,” Hoffman says. “However dumb previous oxygen? If you can also make it there, go for it — you’re manner forward of the sport.”
Reference: “Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)—Making ready for human Mars exploration” by Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Michael H. Hecht, Donald Rapp, Joseph J. Hartvigsen, Jason G. SooHoo, Asad M. Aboobaker, John B. McClean, Andrew M. Liu, Eric D. Hinterman, Maya Nasr, Shravan Hariharan, Kyle J. Horn, Forrest E. Meyen, Harald Okkels, Parker Steen, Singaravelu Elangovan, Christopher R. Graves, Piyush Khopkar, Morten B. Madsen, Gerald E. Voecks, Peter H. Smith, Theis L. Skafte, Koorosh R. Araghi and David J. Eisenman, 31 August 2022, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abp8636
This analysis was supported, partly, by NASA.
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