Scientific American
The technique could someday help astronauts sustainably live and work on the Red Planet
April 22, 2021
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover snapped this selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter on April 6, 2021. Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech and MSSS
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NASA’s Perseverance rover just notched another first on Mars, one that may help pave the way for astronauts to explore the Red Planet someday.
The rover successfully used its MOXIE instrument to generate oxygen from the thin, carbon dioxide-dominated Martian atmosphere for the first time, demonstrating technology that could both help astronauts breathe and help propel the rockets that get them back home to Earth.
NASA s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Logs Second Successful Flight
Ingenuity s Second Flight As Seen by Perseverance: NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast. This is one still frame from a sequence captured by the camera while taking video. This image was acquired on Apr. 22, 2021. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. Download image ›
The small rotorcraft’s horizons were expanded on its second flight.
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its second Mars flight on April 22 – the 18th sol, or Martian day, of its experimental flight test window. Lasting 51.9 seconds, the flight added several new challenges to the first, which took place on April 19, including a higher maximum altitude, longer duration, and sideways movement.
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An experiment converted some of Mars atmosphere into breathable oxygen.
• 5 min read
‘Perseverance’ rover captures historic flight on Mars
The rover captured the full takeoff and landing of the Mars helicopter “Ingenuity.” It was the first powered aircraft to ever fly on another planet. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA said it had successfully made oxygen on Mars, a major development that could aid future human missions to the red planet.
The space agency confirmed Wednesday evening that a tool sent with its Perseverance rover was succesful in converting some of Mars thin, carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere into oxygen.
Technicians at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory lower the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the belly of the Perseverance rover. NASA announced that the instrument had produced oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.
After making the first powered flight on another world, NASA s Mars 2020 mission has managed another key first that could pave the way for future astronauts by making breathable oxygen out of the wispy Martian air.
NASA announced that an instrument aboard the rover had successfully extracted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on Mars and then electrochemically split
oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules.
The Martian atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide. The remainder is mostly nitrogen and argon.
By Bill Galluccio
NASA Perseverance Rover Lands On Mars
NASA announced that the Mars rover Perseverance successfully converted martian air into breathable oxygen. The space agency said that the rover used a special instrument called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) to extract carbon dioxide from the air. The machine then superheated the carbon dioxide to separate the carbon and oxygen molecules. The device, which is the size of a toaster, stores the oxygen molecules and releases carbon monoxide back into the air.
In two hours, MOXIE produced 5.4 grams of oxygen, which equates to roughly ten minutes of breathable air.