A weak atmosphere and the lack of oxygen to sustain life -- these are the two most pressing issues that inhibit astronauts from launching space travels to Mars. A longer stay in the planet without these two factors could readily kill anyone who goes for it. Astronauts will be required to wear their spacesuits all the time to be able to do their work in Mars and this only opens doors to more complications.
However, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) announced that they might have come up with the solution to address these concerns. They say they have found a way to make it possible for astronauts to generate the oxygen that they need at will. The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers looked into the comets, particularly because of their ability to generate molecular oxygen. It is through this that the team was able to discover how oxygen can be made out of carbon dioxide reactions. They created a crash between a gold foil and carbon dioxide and the collision emitted molecular oxygen. The foil is known to be unable to oxidize and should not in any way be able to produce oxygen. However, this study has proven otherwise.
"In the beginning, we thought it would be impossible to combine the oxygen atoms of the CO2 together because this was a type of linear molecule. The idea was to bend the molecule so well that the two oxygen atoms will attract each other," said Konstantinos Giapis, a chemical engineering professor from CalTech. "It is like doing severely drastic to a molecule that you have a 1 to 1000 chance of making it possible."
But when carbon dioxide hit the gold foil, it was bent to the extent that the two oxygen atoms bonded to make breathable air possible. Giapis notes that such type of study is very rare that it can be considered "exotic" in the realm of chemical engineering. Comets were also found to have created the same kind of molecular oxygen, this time from a kinetic energy source. The scientists incorporated the presence of solar wind and how it pushes for the floating water to move towards the surface of the comet.
"In general, when molecules are in their "excited" state, they often lead to chemical discoveries unimaginable, so we started with that thought in mind," said Tom Miller, CalTech chemistry professor.
The potential for this study is huge and exciting, but more studies need to be done to make the walk on Mars project a reality."We are doing crazy things with the information at hand to make everything possible," Giapis said.
