The European Space Agency (ESA) is working on a gadget that can detect molecules called reactive oxygen species on Mars. This might also be important for manufacturing useable oxygen on Mars, where carbon dioxide makes up the bulk of the atmosphere.
Perchlorates, the salts discovered on the Martian surface that have been linked to thyroid disorders and other health difficulties in humans, are a source of oxygen species.
This illustration shows a concept for a set of future robots working together to ferry back samples from the surface of Mars collected by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover.
ESA Wants to Farm Martian Soil
There are two significant reasons to look for these chemicals.
The first one is to ensure that explorers do not contact them. The second is to ensure that the oxygen they can emit is not misinterpreted as a sign of life.
However, such a detecting gadget might have other applications as well.
"The exciting aspect is that this technique can be used for more than just superoxide detection," explained ESA materials and processes engineer Malgorzata Holynska in a statement.
The project, ESA's Technology Development Element fund, will feature the first design of a large-scale reactor device to regularly extract oxygen from the soil, a process we call "oxygen farming."
Within hours, UV light from the sun will refill their oxygen supply. According to estimates, a 1.2 hectare (3 acres) area might provide enough oxygen to keep a single astronaut alive.
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Challenges of This New Technology
However, it is difficult to test this new technology. Simulants of Martian soil exist, constructed for scientific purposes based on what we know about the regolith's composition.
However, the harmful compounds have been eliminated from these simulants for safety reasons, and they are necessary for testing. As a result, the team is developing its own regolith simulant and experimenting with Martian and lunar meteorite samples.
According to the researchers, they want to apply to NASA to see if they can obtain actual lunar samples from the Apollo missions to test on.
Dr. Ioannis Markopoulos, CEO of 01 Mechatronics, which is working on a prototype detector, said per Digital Trends that the goal is to make a smaller prospecting detector than a paperback book.
Markopoulos added that astronauts are likely to find it valuable for the duration of any journey to the Moon or Mars."
Is Farming Martian Soil Realistic?
However, there are many unanswered issues about whether or not cultivating Martian soil is a realistic alternative.
The first thing to consider is how closely the soil simulant mimics genuine Martian soil. According to the researchers, it may include pollutants that allowed plants to grow more effectively in it when it was gathered in Hawaii.
Several Curiosity investigations obtained by Vox have revealed that harmful compounds called perchlorates, which were not present in the simulant, may be widespread in Martian soil.
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