A device on NASA's Perseverance rover generated enough oxygen on Mars for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours. Astronauts could be next.

Thu, 09/07/2023 - 16:57

Mars 2020 rover MOXIE — Members of NASA's Mars 2020 project install the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) into the chassis of NASA's next Mars rover.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

A device on NASA's Perseverance Rover converted Mars' thin air into oxygen.
The pilot project produced enough oxygen for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours.
The next step is expanding the technology to create oxygen for humans and for rocket fuel.

NASA has a way to produce oxygen out of the air on Mars, and it could be a huge step toward building crewed bases on the Red Planet.

Creating oxygen from the Martian air is no easy feat.

Mars' atmosphere consists of mostly carbon dioxide (95%) and nitrogen (3%). It only has traces of oxygen, meaning it's impossible to breathe on Mars, let alone, explore it.