A robot just made oxygen on Mars, which is a huge deal

[Mike Wehner]

Robots are a lot easier to send to other planets than humans are. For one, they don't complain nearly as much. On top of that, they don't need pesky things like food or breathable air. Of course, if we're ever going to send humans to Mars — as space agencies around the globe have pledged to do within the next few decades — we're going to have to figure out a way to either send those things along for the trip or make them once the missions arrive. NASA's Perseverance rover may have just taken a big step toward that goal by extracting oxygen from the Red Planet's toxic, carbon dioxide-soaked atmosphere.

Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, but gasses still cover the surface. Unfortunately, while Earth's atmosphere sports an oxygen concentration of just over 20%, the atmosphere of Mars is roughly 96% carbon dioxide. The oxygen level on the Red Planet is around 0.1%, which is obviously a big problem for us. However, if we can send hardware to Mars that can convert some of the carbon dioxide into oxygen — after all, CO2 is just O2 with an extra C — we could make our own breathable air without having to bring a bunch with us.

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A robot just made oxygen on Mars, which is a huge deal originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 19:20:07 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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