experiment Tag

Day and night, and across seasons, the instrument generates breathable oxygen from the Red Planet's thin atmosphere On the red and dusty surface of Mars, nearly 100 million miles from Earth, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree. The MIT-led Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successfully making oxygen from the Red Planet's carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere since February 2021, when it touched down on the Martian surface as part of NASA's Perseverance rover mission. In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the end of 2021, MOXIE was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs, in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the...