The Perseverance rover set a new record for oxygen production on the Red Planet

The Perseverance rover set a new record for oxygen production on the Red Planet

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Inside NASA’s Perseverance rover is a device called Moxie. MOXIE, or MOXIE, is the first experiment to take the planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich air and convert this native source into oxygen.

The Moxie device, which is about the size of a toaster, if built on a larger scale, could be used not only for astronauts’ trips to Mars, but also for rocket fuel. In early June, the experiment reached an important milestone when the researchers pushed Moxie to its maximum production level, producing twice as much oxygen as before.

Michael eightprincipal investigator of the Moxie experiment and deputy director of MIT’s Haystack Observatory, in an interview with space.com He said: “We got great results. This was the most risky round of testing that could have gone wrong and minor damage could have happened, but it didn’t. The experiment was conducted on June 6, during the night of Mars, and lasted 58 minutes. The Moxy was supposed to produce 6 grams of oxygen per hour, but we ended up doubling that rate. “The challenge during this time was to find ways to increase the efficiency of the device on Mars by producing more oxygen.”

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