Spearthrower wrote:

First flight of a powered aircraft on another world!

felltoearth wrote:Alternate headline.

“Mars neighbourhood annoyed by drone.”


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An instrument on Nasa's Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere.

It's the second successful technology demonstration on the mission, which flew a mini-helicopter on Monday.

The oxygen generation was performed by a toaster-sized unit in the rover called Moxie - the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.

It made 5 grams of the gas - equivalent to what an astronaut at Mars would need to breathe for roughly 10 minutes.

...

Mars' atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide (CO₂) at a concentration of 96%. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared with 21% in Earth's atmosphere.

Moxie is able to strip oxygen atoms from CO₂ molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. The waste product is carbon monoxide, which is vented to the Martian atmosphere.

...

“Moxie isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world, it’s the first technology of its kind that will help future missions 'live off the land', using elements of another world’s environment, also known as in-situ resource utilisation,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations within Nasa’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

"It’s taking regolith, the substance you find on the ground, and putting it through a processing plant, making it into a large structure, or taking carbon dioxide – the bulk of the atmosphere – and converting it into oxygen. This process allows us to convert these abundant materials into useable things: propellant, breathable air, or, combined with hydrogen, water."

Spearthrower wrote:Less flashy, but much more exciting:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56844601

An instrument on Nasa's Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere.

It's the second successful technology demonstration on the mission, which flew a mini-helicopter on Monday.

The oxygen generation was performed by a toaster-sized unit in the rover called Moxie - the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.

It made 5 grams of the gas - equivalent to what an astronaut at Mars would need to breathe for roughly 10 minutes.

...

Mars' atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide (CO₂) at a concentration of 96%. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared with 21% in Earth's atmosphere.

Moxie is able to strip oxygen atoms from CO₂ molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. The waste product is carbon monoxide, which is vented to the Martian atmosphere.

...

“Moxie isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world, it’s the first technology of its kind that will help future missions 'live off the land', using elements of another world’s environment, also known as in-situ resource utilisation,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations within Nasa’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

"It’s taking regolith, the substance you find on the ground, and putting it through a processing plant, making it into a large structure, or taking carbon dioxide – the bulk of the atmosphere – and converting it into oxygen. This process allows us to convert these abundant materials into useable things: propellant, breathable air, or, combined with hydrogen, water."

Challenger007 wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Less flashy, but much more exciting:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56844601

The_Piper wrote:I think making a breathable atmosphere on another planet is a fantasy at this time.

The_Piper wrote::lol: That might be doable pretty soon. I'm not too enthusiastic about it, believe it or not. Exploration, yes. I want to know if there is life, that's what matters the most to me. To quote Sagan again "if there's life, then Mars belongs to the Martians."