Breathtaking Success on Mars: MOXIE Experiment Delivers as Promised

Daniel Mitchell

20 Sep, 2023

NASA/JPL-Caltech

MOXIE successfully turned Martian carbon dioxide into usable oxygen – a monumental achievement with even bigger implications for the future of space exploration

This article was discussed in our Next Byte podcast.

The full article will continue below.

Think about this: while we're here on Earth, a device on Mars (called MOXIE) is breathing life into our interplanetary ambitions by turning carbon dioxide into oxygen. And it's not just working; it's thriving.

The minds behind the mission

The team behind the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, colloquially known as MOXIE, was led by principal investigator Michael Hecht from MIT but also includes collaborators from Caltech as well as OxEon Energy. Stationed on NASA's Perseverance rover, which was designed and managed by NASA JPL, this compact device is making interstellar history.

The drive to innovate

Fundamentally speaking, there will be a massive demand for oxygen in a society that is interplanetary – it is not only required to sustain life but is also necessary for the combustion of rocket fuel. The roots of MOXIE's endeavor trace back to the persistent challenge in space exploration: resource transport. Carrying massive oxygen tanks across the vast expanse between Earth and Mars is logistically daunting and downright uneconomical. Thus, the inception of MOXIE: to negate this transportation need by producing oxygen right on the Red Planet.

Fast forward to today, MOXIE hasn't just met expectations; it's exceeded them. From the time of its Martian touchdown in February 2021, the instrument has not only produced oxygen consistently, but it has also done so under varied atmospheric conditions and at different times, day and night. Its performance, irrespective of the fluctuating Martian atmosphere, stands as a testament to its engineering excellence.

MOXIE's breathtaking success

Between its start-up in February 2021 and September 2023, MOXIE accumulated a total output of 122 grams of oxygen. At maximum operational capacity, the system produced 12 grams of oxygen each hour, achieving a purity level of 98% or higher. The consistent target was six grams of oxygen per hour, a rate comparable to the oxygen output of a standard terrestrial tree. MOXIE matched or exceeded both its purity and volume targets during this experiment.

Impressively, MOXIE's oxygen production was also consistent across Mars' intense seasonal variation. Because of vast differences in temperature between seasons, Mars' atmospheric density can vary up to twofold throughout the year, which presents a dynamic environment for MOXIE's oxygen production.

The secret sauce behind MOXIE

The wizardry of MOXIE is both fascinating and profoundly technical, ingeniously designed to work under the highly variable Martian conditions.

MOXIE begins its operations by first drawing in carbon dioxide-rich Martian air, which is filtered to rid contaminants. The air is subsequently pressurized and channeled through the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE), which was developed by OxEon Energy. SOXE electrochemically dissects the air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide. The oxygen ions are skillfully isolated and recombined, resulting in molecular oxygen, or O2. Before releasing it back into the Martian atmosphere (alongside carbon monoxide and other gases), MOXIE conducts tests to determine whether the oxygen's quantity and purity meet the mark.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Furthermore, accommodating MOXIE's function within the Perseverance rover's busy schedule demanded adaptability. Designed to operate intermittently, MOXIE's performance during various times of the Martian day and throughout diverse seasons showed its resilience. While full-scale versions of MOXIE are envisioned to run continually, the current design's episodic functioning has demonstrated robustness against potential wear and tear.

Beyond the experiment

Following MOXIE's success, the research group still sees lots of future work on the horizon for in-situ oxygen production, including designing a future full-scale system that is designed to run nonstop (the current system is designed to operate only in short bursts). The ultimate goal is to a dispatch larger version of MOXIE to Mars and allow it to produce and store up large quantities of oxygen to support future missions.

All in all, this isn't just a technological win; it's a game-changer. MOXIE's proven ability to transform plentiful Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen means the dream of return flights from Mars – and perhaps eventual manned exploration – is a significant step closer. MOXIE has not just created oxygen but also started paving the path for humanity's next big interplanetary leap.

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James Webb Space Telescope Science Instruments Explained

James Webb Space Telescope aims to take us to the unexplored realm of our cosmic origins. From observing the formation of the first stars and galaxies to looking for the possibility of life on other planets, the telescope will play a major role in the future of space exploration.

21 Dec, 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the next biggest milestone in space exploration that aims to uncover the secrets of our cosmic origins. Equipped with four advanced scientific instruments, it is expected that JWST will shed some light and uncover some mysteries surrounding the earliest galaxies, stars and exoplanets.

The project is jointly developed by National Aeronautical Space Center (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to be the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope (Hubble/HST). The mission is set to launch on 24 December 2021 at 07:20 EST. NASA TV’s live coverage of the launch event begins 24 December 2021 06:00 EST.

This article explains the scientific instruments that power the JWST. We start with the concept of the JWST and go on to explain how the telescope captures visuals from the past.

The idea behind the James Webb Space Telescope

All objects, when heated, radiate energy in the form of IR rays. Objects with a higher temperature emit IR rays with higher intensity and longer wavelengths. The first light in the universe was produced by the stars that were born within a few hundred million years after the big bang, which supposedly took place over 13.8 billion years ago. The light became fainter and redder until it became invisible to our eyes. JWST is designed to overcome this limitation and allows us to see what was never seen before.

Light travels at a speed of 299,792,458 m/s which means it takes a definite amount of time for light to reach us. The light from the sun roughly takes 8.33 minutes to get to us. The light from the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, takes over 4.2 years.

Comparison between images captured in IR (left) and visible light (right). Source: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Essentially we can arrive at a conclusion that the light emitted by objects that

NASA Launches X-ray Spectrometer Mission to Probe Mysteries of Solar Corona

NASA researchers successfully launched a sophisticated X-ray solar imager on a brief but potentially illuminating suborbital flight via sounding rocket to gather new insight regarding how and why the Sun’s corona grows so much hotter than the actual surface of Earth’s parent star.

Molly Porter

fromNASA

05 Aug, 2021

space

- spacecraft

NASA researchers successfully launched a sophisticated X-ray solar imager on a brief but potentially illuminating suborbital flight via sounding rocket to gather new insight regarding how and why the Sun’s corona grows so much hotter than the actual surface of Earth’s parent star.

Developers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, call the mission “MaGIXS” – short for Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer. It launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 2:20 p.m. EDT on July 30.

The MaGIXS mission dispatched its payload – which included a high-powered camera, telescope, and X-ray spectrometer containing a matched pair of grazing incidence parabolic mirrors – to study so-called “soft” X-rays at a wavelength that hasn’t been previously observed in such detail.

NASA’s Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer, or MaGIXS, undergoes testing at the X-ray & Cryogenic Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, prior to its July 30 launch. Credits: NASA

“Our knowledge of the corona’s heating mechanisms is limited, partly because we’ve not yet been able to make detailed observations and measurements of the temperature distribution of the solar plasma in the region,” said Marshall heliophysicist Amy Winebarger, principal investigator for the MaGIXS mission.

The Sun’s surface temperature is more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit – but the corona routinely measures more than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the biggest questions in astrophysics, Winebarger said, is how this process occurs. Is it a series of constant internal solar explosions, or is there a periodic rise and fall in the heating process? Scientists are considering two possible answers. The first is tied to nanoflares, relatively small coronal heating events which may cause the magnetic lines of energy on the Sun’s surface to tangl