Oxygen Successfully Produced on Mars

An experiment to produce oxygen on Mars has concluded successfully and surpassed NASA's initial goals. Over the course of two years, a device on the Perseverance rover called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) generated 122 grams of oxygen, equivalent to what a small dog breathes in 10 hours. MOXIE works by converting Mars' abundant carbon dioxide into oxygen. The device demonstrated remarkable efficiency, producing 12 grams of oxygen an hour at 98% purity, double NASA's target. Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations at NASA, stated, "By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we've come one step closer to a future in which astronauts 'live off the land' on the Red Planet."