NASA ’s Perseverance rover has now produced enough oxygen to keep a small dog alive on Mars for 10 minute , NASA has announced , despite no program to weird a wiener out in brief before its demise .
When Perseverancelanded on Marsin February 2021 , it took with it the Mars Oxygen In - Situ Resource Utilization Experiment ( MOXIE ) draw a bead on at distill oxygen from the Martian aura . Since then it has generated O 16 times , finally completing its running game of experimentation on August 7 , 2023 .
During this prison term it produced 12 Gram ( 0.4 ounces ) of oxygen an hour at its most effective , twice as much as NASA had in the beginning trust for . As well as this , the oxygen produced was at 98 per centum purity or higher .
In apress releaseannouncing the success of the mission , NASA explained that the total 122 grams ( 4.3 ounces ) of O produced would be enough to keep a small dog alive for 10 hour . Humans need about840 grams(30 snow leopard ) of oxygen a day to last according to NASA , meaning the O farm by the wanderer would sustain an cosmonaut for just under 3 and a one-half hour .
“ MOXIE ’s impressive performance shows that it is viable to extract oxygen from Mars ’ atmosphere – O that could help supply breathable air or skyrocket propellent to succeeding spaceman , ” NASA ’s Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in the press release . “ Developing technologies that let us use resourcefulness on the Moon and Mars is critical to build a long - term lunar comportment , make a robust lunar economy , and allow us to bear an initial human geographic expedition political campaign to Mars . ”
While hold open astronauts and their Canis familiaris not bushed for a bit is telling , NASA explains that leaving the major planet will need " industrial quantities " of propellant , and would be the principal purpose of producing our own oxygen while we are there .
The team plans to down MOXIE , as well as make a way to liquify and store the oxygen it produces . Maybe one day , when we ’re all headed to Mars for our vacation LIKE SCI - FI PROMISED , we wo n’t have to pack our own air .
