Meet Nasa S Moxie A Box That Creates Oxygen On Mars

Comment If humans want to explore Mars in the future, they will need to create oxygen. Now, a small device the size of a toaster is on the planet doing just that. In a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that the Mars In situ Oxygen Resource Experiment – known as MOXIE – can produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere . The experiment, part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover mission that landed on Mars in February 2021, is the first time resources from another planet have been turned into something useful for human missions, researchers said. The tiny box, created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, produces enough oxygen to match the output of a small tree on Earth, and can do so during the day and night over its many seasons. Mars. “It’s what explorers have been doing since time immemorial,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, a former NASA astronaut who is deputy principal investigator of the MOXIE mission and professor of aerospace engineering at MIT. “Learn what resources are available where you’re going and learn how to use them.” Artemis I launches clean as engine problem defies quick fix Space agencies, scientists and entrepreneurs are asking humans to explore Mars. NASA’s long-awaited and controversial Artemis mission to the moon is seen as a stepping stone to exploring Mars in the next decade or so. China hopes to put humans on the planet by 2033. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of SpaceX, has hinted it will be by 2029. But getting humans to Mars requires a lot of complicated things to happen, Hoffman said. Astronauts must endure high levels of cosmic radiation during the long journey to the planet. The trip to and from Mars can take more than 8 months, so there must be plenty of food and medicine for space travelers. Perhaps the most important thing is a reliable supply of oxygen, Hoffman said. Astronauts need it to breathe in any temporary habitat they’ve created on Mars, as well as in spacesuit tanks when exploring the planet. It is also a critical propellant to power the rocket that would be needed to return from Mars to Earth. Space agencies could send enough oxygen to Mars for astronauts to breathe and make the trip home, Hoffman said, but doing so would be too expensive, requiring multiple rocket launches. Producing the oxygen on Mars from the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere would be cheaper, he said. The atmosphere of Mars is about 96 percent carbon dioxide. To test their ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, NASA brought a small, golden box aboard the Perseverance Rover mission last year. Since April 2021, MOXIE has conducted several tests in which it produced oxygen at different times of the Martian day and in different seasonal conditions. During each experiment, the box generated about 6 grams of oxygen per hour, equal to the yield of an average tree on Earth. (In his most recent test, which will be published in a future paper, Hoffman said the machine’s output increased to 10 grams per hour.) If the technology is mastered, scientists would have to significantly scale up the size of the machine and ensure that it could operate continuously. To sustain a human mission to Mars and get people back, Hoffman said, at least 4.5 to 6.5 kilograms of oxygen would need to be generated per hour over the course of a multi-year mission. “That would require scaling things up several hundred times,” he said. NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is aiming for a dicey landing to search for ancient life The machine can work during most periods of the Martian day, except for a few specific hours. “The only thing we haven’t shown is running at dawn or dusk, when the temp [on Mars] is fundamentally changing,” said Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory. “We have an ace up our sleeve that will allow us to do this, and once we test it in the lab, we can reach this final milestone to show that we can actually run at any time.” Engineers plan to push the MOXIE device to its limits, increasing its oxygen-producing capacity and ensuring it works during the Martian spring, when the planet’s atmosphere is thick and carbon dioxide levels are high. “We’re going to put everything as high as we dare and let it run as long as we can,” Hecht said. NASA has set Saturday for the next Artemis launch attempt Engineers will monitor the machine for wear and tear and see if it can withstand enough pressure to suggest it can be turned into a full-scale system that can run continuously for thousands of hours. If so, the implications could be significant. “To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of things from Earth,” Hoffman said. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it – you’re way ahead of the game.”

title: “Meet Nasa S Moxie A Box That Creates Oxygen On Mars Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-12” author: “Steven Moye”

Comment If humans want to explore Mars in the future, they will need to create oxygen. Now, a small device the size of a toaster is on the planet doing just that. In a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that the Mars In situ Oxygen Resource Experiment – known as MOXIE – can produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere . The experiment, part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover mission that landed on Mars in February 2021, is the first time resources from another planet have been turned into something useful for human missions, researchers said. The tiny box, created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, produces enough oxygen to match the output of a small tree on Earth, and can do so during the day and night over its many seasons. Mars. “It’s what explorers have been doing since time immemorial,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, a former NASA astronaut who is deputy principal investigator of the MOXIE mission and professor of aerospace engineering at MIT. “Learn what resources are available where you’re going and learn how to use them.” Artemis I launches clean as engine problem defies quick fix Space agencies, scientists and entrepreneurs are asking humans to explore Mars. NASA’s long-awaited and controversial Artemis mission to the moon is seen as a stepping stone to exploring Mars in the next decade or so. China hopes to put humans on the planet by 2033. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of SpaceX, has hinted it will be by 2029. But getting humans to Mars requires a lot of complicated things to happen, Hoffman said. Astronauts must endure high levels of cosmic radiation during the long journey to the planet. The trip to and from Mars can take more than 8 months, so there must be plenty of food and medicine for space travelers. Perhaps the most important thing is a reliable supply of oxygen, Hoffman said. Astronauts need it to breathe in any temporary habitat they’ve created on Mars, as well as in spacesuit tanks when exploring the planet. It is also a critical propellant to power the rocket that would be needed to return from Mars to Earth. Space agencies could send enough oxygen to Mars for astronauts to breathe and make the trip home, Hoffman said, but doing so would be too expensive, requiring multiple rocket launches. Producing the oxygen on Mars from the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere would be cheaper, he said. The atmosphere of Mars is about 96 percent carbon dioxide. To test their ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, NASA brought a small, golden box aboard the Perseverance Rover mission last year. Since April 2021, MOXIE has conducted several tests in which it produced oxygen at different times of the Martian day and in different seasonal conditions. During each experiment, the box generated about 6 grams of oxygen per hour, equal to the yield of an average tree on Earth. (In his most recent test, which will be published in a future paper, Hoffman said the machine’s output increased to 10 grams per hour.) If the technology is mastered, scientists would have to significantly scale up the size of the machine and ensure that it could operate continuously. To sustain a human mission to Mars and get people back, Hoffman said, at least 4.5 to 6.5 kilograms of oxygen would need to be generated per hour over the course of a multi-year mission. “That would require scaling things up several hundred times,” he said. NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is aiming for a dicey landing to search for ancient life The machine can work during most periods of the Martian day, except for a few specific hours. “The only thing we haven’t shown is running at dawn or dusk, when the temp [on Mars] is fundamentally changing,” said Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory. “We have an ace up our sleeve that will allow us to do this, and once we test it in the lab, we can reach this final milestone to show that we can actually run at any time.” Engineers plan to push the MOXIE device to its limits, increasing its oxygen-producing capacity and ensuring it works during the Martian spring, when the planet’s atmosphere is thick and carbon dioxide levels are high. “We’re going to put everything as high as we dare and let it run as long as we can,” Hecht said. NASA has set Saturday for the next Artemis launch attempt Engineers will monitor the machine for wear and tear and see if it can withstand enough pressure to suggest it can be turned into a full-scale system that can run continuously for thousands of hours. If so, the implications could be significant. “To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of things from Earth,” Hoffman said. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it – you’re way ahead of the game.”

title: “Meet Nasa S Moxie A Box That Creates Oxygen On Mars Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-26” author: “Richard Scribner”

Comment If humans want to explore Mars in the future, they will need to create oxygen. Now, a small device the size of a toaster is on the planet doing just that. In a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that the Mars In situ Oxygen Resource Experiment – known as MOXIE – can produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere . The experiment, part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover mission that landed on Mars in February 2021, is the first time resources from another planet have been turned into something useful for human missions, researchers said. The tiny box, created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, produces enough oxygen to match the output of a small tree on Earth, and can do so during the day and night over its many seasons. Mars. “It’s what explorers have been doing since time immemorial,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, a former NASA astronaut who is deputy principal investigator of the MOXIE mission and professor of aerospace engineering at MIT. “Learn what resources are available where you’re going and learn how to use them.” Artemis I launches clean as engine problem defies quick fix Space agencies, scientists and entrepreneurs are asking humans to explore Mars. NASA’s long-awaited and controversial Artemis mission to the moon is seen as a stepping stone to exploring Mars in the next decade or so. China hopes to put humans on the planet by 2033. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of SpaceX, has hinted it will be by 2029. But getting humans to Mars requires a lot of complicated things to happen, Hoffman said. Astronauts must endure high levels of cosmic radiation during the long journey to the planet. The trip to and from Mars can take more than 8 months, so there must be plenty of food and medicine for space travelers. Perhaps the most important thing is a reliable supply of oxygen, Hoffman said. Astronauts need it to breathe in any temporary habitat they’ve created on Mars, as well as in spacesuit tanks when exploring the planet. It is also a critical propellant to power the rocket that would be needed to return from Mars to Earth. Space agencies could send enough oxygen to Mars for astronauts to breathe and make the trip home, Hoffman said, but doing so would be too expensive, requiring multiple rocket launches. Producing the oxygen on Mars from the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere would be cheaper, he said. The atmosphere of Mars is about 96 percent carbon dioxide. To test their ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, NASA brought a small, golden box aboard the Perseverance Rover mission last year. Since April 2021, MOXIE has conducted several tests in which it produced oxygen at different times of the Martian day and in different seasonal conditions. During each experiment, the box generated about 6 grams of oxygen per hour, equal to the yield of an average tree on Earth. (In his most recent test, which will be published in a future paper, Hoffman said the machine’s output increased to 10 grams per hour.) If the technology is mastered, scientists would have to significantly scale up the size of the machine and ensure that it could operate continuously. To sustain a human mission to Mars and get people back, Hoffman said, at least 4.5 to 6.5 kilograms of oxygen would need to be generated per hour over the course of a multi-year mission. “That would require scaling things up several hundred times,” he said. NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is aiming for a dicey landing to search for ancient life The machine can work during most periods of the Martian day, except for a few specific hours. “The only thing we haven’t shown is running at dawn or dusk, when the temp [on Mars] is fundamentally changing,” said Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory. “We have an ace up our sleeve that will allow us to do this, and once we test it in the lab, we can reach this final milestone to show that we can actually run at any time.” Engineers plan to push the MOXIE device to its limits, increasing its oxygen-producing capacity and ensuring it works during the Martian spring, when the planet’s atmosphere is thick and carbon dioxide levels are high. “We’re going to put everything as high as we dare and let it run as long as we can,” Hecht said. NASA has set Saturday for the next Artemis launch attempt Engineers will monitor the machine for wear and tear and see if it can withstand enough pressure to suggest it can be turned into a full-scale system that can run continuously for thousands of hours. If so, the implications could be significant. “To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of things from Earth,” Hoffman said. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it – you’re way ahead of the game.”

title: “Meet Nasa S Moxie A Box That Creates Oxygen On Mars Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-24” author: “Howard Harrell”

Comment If humans want to explore Mars in the future, they will need to create oxygen. Now, a small device the size of a toaster is on the planet doing just that. In a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that the Mars In situ Oxygen Resource Experiment – known as MOXIE – can produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere . The experiment, part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover mission that landed on Mars in February 2021, is the first time resources from another planet have been turned into something useful for human missions, researchers said. The tiny box, created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, produces enough oxygen to match the output of a small tree on Earth, and can do so during the day and night over its many seasons. Mars. “It’s what explorers have been doing since time immemorial,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, a former NASA astronaut who is deputy principal investigator of the MOXIE mission and professor of aerospace engineering at MIT. “Learn what resources are available where you’re going and learn how to use them.” Artemis I launches clean as engine problem defies quick fix Space agencies, scientists and entrepreneurs are asking humans to explore Mars. NASA’s long-awaited and controversial Artemis mission to the moon is seen as a stepping stone to exploring Mars in the next decade or so. China hopes to put humans on the planet by 2033. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of SpaceX, has hinted it will be by 2029. But getting humans to Mars requires a lot of complicated things to happen, Hoffman said. Astronauts must endure high levels of cosmic radiation during the long journey to the planet. The trip to and from Mars can take more than 8 months, so there must be plenty of food and medicine for space travelers. Perhaps the most important thing is a reliable supply of oxygen, Hoffman said. Astronauts need it to breathe in any temporary habitat they’ve created on Mars, as well as in spacesuit tanks when exploring the planet. It is also a critical propellant to power the rocket that would be needed to return from Mars to Earth. Space agencies could send enough oxygen to Mars for astronauts to breathe and make the trip home, Hoffman said, but doing so would be too expensive, requiring multiple rocket launches. Producing the oxygen on Mars from the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere would be cheaper, he said. The atmosphere of Mars is about 96 percent carbon dioxide. To test their ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, NASA brought a small, golden box aboard the Perseverance Rover mission last year. Since April 2021, MOXIE has conducted several tests in which it produced oxygen at different times of the Martian day and in different seasonal conditions. During each experiment, the box generated about 6 grams of oxygen per hour, equal to the yield of an average tree on Earth. (In his most recent test, which will be published in a future paper, Hoffman said the machine’s output increased to 10 grams per hour.) If the technology is mastered, scientists would have to significantly scale up the size of the machine and ensure that it could operate continuously. To sustain a human mission to Mars and get people back, Hoffman said, at least 4.5 to 6.5 kilograms of oxygen would need to be generated per hour over the course of a multi-year mission. “That would require scaling things up several hundred times,” he said. NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance is aiming for a dicey landing to search for ancient life The machine can work during most periods of the Martian day, except for a few specific hours. “The only thing we haven’t shown is running at dawn or dusk, when the temp [on Mars] is fundamentally changing,” said Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory. “We have an ace up our sleeve that will allow us to do this, and once we test it in the lab, we can reach this final milestone to show that we can actually run at any time.” Engineers plan to push the MOXIE device to its limits, increasing its oxygen-producing capacity and ensuring it works during the Martian spring, when the planet’s atmosphere is thick and carbon dioxide levels are high. “We’re going to put everything as high as we dare and let it run as long as we can,” Hecht said. NASA has set Saturday for the next Artemis launch attempt Engineers will monitor the machine for wear and tear and see if it can withstand enough pressure to suggest it can be turned into a full-scale system that can run continuously for thousands of hours. If so, the implications could be significant. “To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of things from Earth,” Hoffman said. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it – you’re way ahead of the game.”