Study: New Method Could Turn Mars Water into Oxygen
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American researchers say they have invented a method that could use salty water on Mars to produce oxygen and fuel.
Oxygen and fuel would both be important elements to support future human exploration activities on the Red Planet.
Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, developed the new method. The method operates with electrolysis, a process that passes an electrical current through liquid, such as water.
The machine the researchers created is called an electrolyzer. The researchers say it can separate salty water into oxygen and hydrogen gases. Oxygen would be needed for humans to breathe and hydrogen could be used to fuel spacecrafts and equipment.