![MOXIE is installed on the Perseverance rover in 2019. The device produced oxygen 16 times, testing a key technology for future human missions to Mars. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/pia23154-16.jpg)
MOXIE is installed on the Perseverance rover in 2019. The device produced oxygen 16 times, testing a key technology for future human missions to Mars. Credit: NASA
NASA’s microwave-sized oxygen-generating MOXIE technology demonstrator has accomplished its mission on Mars.
MOXIE stands for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. It was sent to the Red Planet aboard NASA’s robotic Perseverance rover and was designed to reveal the feasibility of manufacturing oxygen on Mars by extracting it from the planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, in accordance with NASA
Since arriving on Mars in February 2021, MOXIE has generated oxygen 16 times, producing a complete of 122 grams of oxygen, which NASA says is about what a small dog breathes in 10 hours. The space agency said at its peak, the device produced 12 grams of oxygen an hour with 98% purity or higher. Its last use on Aug. 7 produced 9.8 grams of oxygen. In line with NASA, MOXIE met or exceeded all of its technical goals.
“We’re proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that might turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions,” Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in an agency statement. “By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we’ve come one step closer to a future through which astronauts ‘live off the land’ on the Red Planet.”
This was the primary time oxygen had been produced by a spacecraft on Mars. NASA said MOXIE produces oxygen via an electrochemical process that separates one oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide pumped in from the Martian atmosphere.
This technology is predicted for use during future human missions to the Red Planet so as to reduce the quantity of consumables astronauts may have to bring with them on a multi-year flight. Oxygen could be used for respiration, in addition to the oxidizer component of rocket propellent for an Earth return vehicle.
“MOXIE has clearly served as inspiration to the ISRU community,” said the instrument’s principal investigator, Michael Hecht of MIT. “It showed NASA is willing to take a position in these sorts of future technologies. And it has been a flagship that has influenced the exciting industry of space resources.”