Updated 4 hours ago NASA/JPL-Caltech In a major advancement toward sending astronauts to Mars, a toaster-sized instrument aboard the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-managed Perseverance rover successfully extracted oxygen from the atmosphere of the Red Planet, NASA officials announced Wednesday. The feat was accomplished by an instrument known as the Mars Oxygen In- Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get the latest breaking news and local stories. The equipment utilized the Martian atmosphere, which is 96% carbon-dioxide, and extracted 5 grams of oxygen. That's roughly 10 minutes of breathable oxygen for an astronaut. “This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.