An experiment running on Mars is currently pumping oxygen into the planet’s atmosphere, setting the groundwork for potential human colonisation.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is being led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Attached to NASA’s Perseverance rover, MOXIE is a small device about the size of a lunchbox.

Since April 2021, it has been using Mars’ atmosphere, which is 95% carbon dioxide and only 0.16% unbound oxygen, to produce six grams of oxygen per hour — roughly what a small tree can do on Earth.

It started work about two months after touching down on Mars.

The device works by drawing air in through a filter to clean it of contaminants. The air is then pressurised and sent through the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE) that electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide.

The oxygen ions are recombined to form breathable oxygen molecules, which are then released into the atmosphere.

According to a new report, researchers said that by the end of 2021, MOXIE managed to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs. These took place in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons.

The researchers noted that the Martian atmosphere is far more variable than Earth, with temperatures and air densities capable of varying greatly throughout the year.

The device’s ability to output a steady flow of oxygen is a first step towards scaling up the device.

While the current version of MOXIE is designed start up and shut down depending on the rover’s exploration schedule and to run for short periods, a full-scale oxygen factory would include larger units that would ideally run continuously.

According to the researchers, larger versions of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees.

At that capacity, the system should generate enough oxygen to both sustain humans once they arrive and fuel a rocket for returning astronauts back to Earth.

“We have learned a tremendous amount that will inform future systems at a larger scale,” says Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory.

MOXIE deputy principal investigator Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor of the practice in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics added: “This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission.”

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The next steps for MOXIE will be to push its capacity and increase production, particularly in the Martian spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide levels are high.

“The next run coming up will be during the highest density of the year, and we just want to make as much oxygen as we can,” Hecht said. “So, we’ll set everything as high as we dare, and let it run as long as we can.”

If MOXIE can operate successfully despite repeatedly turning on and off, this would suggest that a full-scale system, designed to run continuously on Mars, could do so for thousands of hours.

“To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth, like computers, spacesuits, and habitats,” Hoffman added. “But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it — you’re way ahead of the game.”

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