NASA’s Gold Box Will Make Oxygen on Mars

NASA’s next rover mission has a special device aboard that’ll do something revolutionary: make oxygen on Mars for the first time.

If you saw the 2015 film ‘The Martian,’ you might recall main character Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) mentioning something called an oxygenator…well, NASA’s newest device isn’t so far off from the sci-fi tech.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, better known as MOXIE, uses a technology called solid oxide electrolysis, and the goal? To produce oxygen from the Martian carbon-dioxide atmosphere for both propellant and breathing.

NASA is continuing to prepare for human exploration of Mars and is set to launch its next rover to the red planet in 2020. Seven instruments will be aboard the rover, six of which are focused on sample analysis like this SuperCam and a spectrometer called PIXL that’ll measure chemical signatures of Martian rocks. And MOXIE is the seventh.

We sat down with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Instrument Systems Engineer Asad Aboobaker to find out more about how exactly MOXIE will make oxygen on Mars, check out this Focal Point to find out more.

#NASA #JPL #Mars #Space #spacetravel #seeker #focalpoint #science

Read More:
Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment
NASA is preparing for human exploration of Mars, and MOXIE will demonstrate a way that future explorers might produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for propellant and for breathing.

Mars 2020 Mission Overview
The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars 2020 mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key Astrobiology questions about the potential for life on Mars.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an energy conversion device that produces electricity by electrochemically combining a fuel and an oxidant across an ionic conducting oxide electrolyte.
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[juparkjr]

"Oxyginator"
*Gets copyrighted by Heinz Doofenshmirtz*

[pixelbits]

“The Golden box” man this is sounding more sci fi the more advanced we get

[jennatolls]

NASA: we just made a machine to make oxygen out of carbon dioxide

Trees: your about 350 million years late

[Illum_]

Memes 50 years into the future:
Your childhood was awesome when oxygen came from these
*Picture of a tree*

[veitforabetterworld]

DIY Oxygen from Carbondioxide:
Step 1: Plant a plant
Step 2: Water it

[Phil]

so moxie is a real thing and not just something in surviving mars

[isg]

This was a nice break from the terrible reality we’re currently living in. Thanks y’all.

[VashGames]

I hope they make absolutely sure that no roaches stow away on those shipments.

[knightsofaltier]

Type 1 civilization here we come!!! Terraforming has begun!

[artemisandcallisto]

The only thing flat earthers fear is sphere itself.

[gordonramsey]

Make a business on Mars that sells oxygen and call it O’Hare Air.

[momentary_]

They actually did it. It took the small version they sent one hour to make 10 minutes of oxygen for one person. When they send large versions, they will be able to make oxygen indefinitely for anyone living there.

[phillycheesesteak]

This might be a stupid question, but if this is developed more could it be used on earth to reverse global warming?

[qwasdr]

"How can SpaceX be so much more cost-efficient than us?"
"I don't know, man. Get back to that box of pure Gold we're working on."

[wentzr]

“If you had the power of geoengineering to terraform Mars into Earth, then you have the power of geoengineering to turn Earth back into Earth.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

[yeeturmcbeetur]

Y’all literally just gonna get copyrighted by a tree.

[arctic-]

Is 6 grams of oxygen per hour enough to keep a small dog alive? damn

[michaellee]

Gold Box: *exists*

Elon Musk: I’LL TAKE THAT

[BVPl]

Imagine spending trillions of $$ on exploration rather than war / weapons .

[derekleiro]

I legit thought he was gonna advertise skillshare at this moment - 5:02