NASA Perseverance Rover Finally Makes Breathable Air on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover generated breathable air on the planet's surface by extracting a trace amount of oxygen from the planet's 96 percent carbon dioxide atmosphere.

According to CNET, a toaster-sized machine named MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) helped Perseverance Rover do the task. MOXIE "makes" breathable air by literally peeling oxygen atoms from CO2 molecules.

This incredible scientific achievement comes just one day after NASA successfully flew the Ingenuity helicopter over the surface of Mars.

"This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars," Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement today (April 21). "MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars."

Cutting-Edge Technology

The NASA Mars Perseverance rover used cutting-edge technology to take one of the first steps toward projected colonization of the Red Planet. It achieved a feat never seen before in human history.

The NASA rover MOXIE heated the atmosphere's carbon dioxide to about 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit. Engadget said the tiny machine allowed it to separate as many oxygen atoms as possible from CO2 molecules while churning carbon monoxide as a byproduct of the process.

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Around five grams of oxygen were released, which is enough to provide 10 minutes of breathable air to one person. NASA website revealed that MOXIE could produce around 10 grams of oxygen per hour if used to its maximum potential if they used this powerful machine.

Few More Steps Towards Colonization?

Colonizing Mars has been a hot topic for a long time. Hence, the prospect of creating breathable air on its surface is sure to pique people's interest even more.

Several of the world's most influential technology advocates, including Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, are strong supporters of Mars colonization. It's not just multibillionaires like Musk who are affected. ABIBOO, an architecture firm, has been working on designs for Nuwa, the first city on Mars, which they hope to have completed by the year 2100.

But, with the MOXIE experiment's popularity, are we getting closer to actually sending people there? Returning to Musk and Nuwa, he claims that the city will be built much sooner than anticipated. SpaceX's biggest roadblock right now is the time it will take to clear its starships for space travel.

What's Next for NASA And MOXIE?

NASA said future plans for the MOXIE experiment and the Mars rover project include further testing of the machine's capabilities. Now that the first step has been completed, MOXIE will be tested in a variety of atmospheric environments, such as various times of day or seasons. MOXIE can be forced even further in the third process by forcing it to explore new operating modes. For the next two years, it will be expected to extract oxygen at least nine times more.