During its stay on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover produced 122 grams of oxygen – enough to support human life for three hours.
NASA’s Perseverance rover produced enough oxygen on the Red Planet to keep an astronaut alive for three hours. This is reported by Live Science.
The rover, which first touched down on Mars in February 2021, used its MOXIE device to generate oxygen by converting carbon dioxide periodically over two years. In all this time, he produced 122 grams of oxygen.
This gives scientists hope that one day, oxygen-creating facilities on the Red Planet could support a long-term human presence on Mars.
According to NASA, there is a lot of carbon dioxide on Mars, it reaches 95%. Therefore, using MOXIE, the Perseverance rover separates the oxygen atoms and then stores them in a special capsule. The residue is released as carbon monoxide.
Scientists say that oxygen extraction devices will be useful not only for the breathing of colonists in the future, but also for the production of rocket fuel. In this way, future missions will not need to carry large amounts of fuel and oxygen, making such flights cheaper.
However, a man on Mars cannot live without a spacesuit. The average temperature of the planet is 62 degrees Celsius, and the low atmospheric pressure will cause blood to boil quickly. And this does not include the protective ozone layer, which does not exist on the Red Planet. Therefore, solar and cosmic radiation can seriously harm a person, for example it can lead to the destruction of bones.
It was previously reported that a NASA spacecraft captured the movement of ice flows on Mars.
Source: korrespondent
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