Making Oxygen on Mars

[Ian]

It looks like the little Perseverance rover on Mars is making oxygen on another planet for the first time!

Nasa's rover makes breathable oxygen on Mars

An instrument in the Perseverance rover produces oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere.

www.bbc.co.uk

I was surprised to read in the article that mars already has 0.13% oxygen in the atmosphere... I wonder where that came from!?

 

[nivrip]

I was surprised to read in the article that mars already has 0.13% oxygen in the atmosphere... I wonder where that came from!?

Probably always there. I believe Mars was thought to have an extensive atmosphere in times gone by but much less so now.

 

[Ian]

Probably always there. I believe Mars was thought to have an extensive atmosphere in times gone by but much less so now.

I can't wait to see what sort of stuff we can discover about Mars, it certainly sounds like there are quite a few secrets it has to give up in the coming decades. I do wonder if we'll be able to get a permanent colony on the planet within our lifetimes.

 

[Abarbarian]

It is an awfully long way to go for a ten minute look around Pretty much like going on one of them there fancy cruises folk go on these days.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...s-rover-extracts-first-oxygen-from-red-planet

After a 2-hour warmup period MOXIE began producing oxygen at a rate of 6 grams per hour. The was reduced two times during the run (labeled as “current sweeps”) in order to assess the status of the instrument. After an hour of operation the total oxygen produced was about 5.4 grams, enough to keep an astronaut healthy for about 10 minutes of normal activity.

though

In this first operation, MOXIE’s oxygen production was quite modest – about 5 grams, equivalent to about 10 minutes worth of breathable oxygen for an astronaut. MOXIE is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.

Mind you if they set MOXIE to work as soon as they launch a flight then they may have sufficient air produced for a decent day trip for a couple of astronauts by the time they land.

 

[historian]

Assuming all that oxygen stays in the Martian atmosphere. From what I've read Mars has no active core so no magnetic field. Unlike Earth it's magnetic field protects the Earth from the stripping effect of the sun's output. The atmosphere on Mars has been stripped away by the sun over millions of years,and it's still going on.