Technology
NASA’s ‘Perseverance’ Mars rover successfully produced oxygen on Mars
NASA’s “Perseverance” Mars rover successfully produced the first oxygen on Mars on Tuesday.
‘Perseverance’ carries a device called the ‘Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment that can extract carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and convert it into oxygen, much like trees on Earth.
On Tuesday, Perseverance made its first oxygen. Its small amount, only 5.4 grams, can only allow astronauts to breathe healthily for 10 minutes, but it proves that this technology is feasible on Mars.
This is good news for mankind to explore Mars in the future. Oxygen occupies a lot of space in the manned spacecraft, and astronauts are unlikely to bring enough oxygen to Mars.
Therefore, astronauts require to create oxygen from the Martian atmosphere that can be used for breathing and as rocket fuel for returning to Earth.
