How NASA Just Successfully Produced Oxygen on Mars : The MOXIE Instrument aboard Perseverance Rover.

NASA's Perseverance has made another significant addition to its list of firsts by converting atmospheric carbon dioxide on the red planet into oxygen. This is thanks to a relatively small instrument on the rover dubbed MOXIE.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment made this notable achievement on April 20, 2021, sol 60 of the Perseverance mission. This accomplishment is a cardinal step for the future of space exploration as it will not only help propel future rockets off the Martian surface but will also lay the groundwork for future astronauts extracting breathable air from the planet's thin atmosphere.

“MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars. Oxygen isn’t just the stuff we breathe. Rocket propellant depends on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on producing propellant on Mars to make the trip home,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).