MOXIE
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is an exploration technology demonstration that will produce oxygen from the carbon-dioxide-rich atmospheres of Mars. This is the critical first step toward the development of a sustained human presence on another planetary body.
MOXIE — about the size of a car battery — works like a tree to breathe in the carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen that can support a crew’s breathing needs and be used as the fuel oxidizer for an ascent vehicle. The unit collects carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and electrochemically splits the molecules into oxygen and carbon. The oxygen is then analyzed for purity before being vented back out into the Mars atmosphere, along with the carbon and other exhaust products. By using the resources available on location, or in-situ, expeditions become more affordable and more sustainable and the fuel and oxygen payload requirement for Earth launches is significantly reduced.
Liquid oxygen created on the surface of Mars could supply more than 75 percent of the propellant humans need for exploration on the Red Planet. To launch a spacecraft from Mars, explorers need roughly 33 to 50 tons of fuel — about the weight of a space shuttle. Human missions will require a much larger oxygen generator, about 100 times larger than the test model.
MOXIE is funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Technology Demonstration Missions program. The project is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission
Riding with the Perseverance rover, the instrument has proved to be a viable technology for astronauts on Mars to produce…
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MOXIE Celebrates 2 Years on Mars: Discoveries and Work Left To Do
On April 20, 2021, MOXIE created oxygen on Mars for the first time. This April, we are celebrating two fantastic years on Mars and the advances MOXIE has made for the field of space resources.
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Is There Oxygen on Mars? We Asked a NASA Technologist
Is there oxygen on Mars? Technically yes, but it’s nothing like the amount we have on Earth. So breathing is out of the question. However, there IS a lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) on Mars. Now a new technology — MOXIE — has proven that we can convert Martian CO2 into oxygen for use by future explorers. NASA engineer Asad Aboobaker tells us more.
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Making Oxygen on Mars with MOXIE
Crazy Engineering explores a technology demonstration riding aboard NASA's Mars 2020 rover that's straight out of science fiction novels like "The Martian." It's an oxygen generator called MOXIE, designed to convert carbon dioxide – which constitutes about 96% of the Martian atmosphere – into breathable oxygen.
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