--- title: "NASA Flew an MIT Device to Mars, Where It’s Been Cranking Out Breathable Oxygen for More Than a Year" description: "Known as MOXIE, this lunchbox-sized machine aboard the Mars rover can generate breathable oxygen directly from the Martian atmosphere." date: "2022-09-01" modified: "2022-09-01" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-moxie-rover-oxygen-mars" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "mars" - "NASA" - "perseverance" - "the digest" --- # NASA Flew an MIT Device to Mars, Where It’s Been Cranking Out Breathable Oxygen for More Than a Year ![Known as MOXIE, this lunchbox-sized machine aboard the Mars rover can generate breathable oxygen directly from the Martian atmosphere.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Fresh Air A crewed trip to Mars will require more preparation than a packed lunch and a good queue of podcasts. Among others, one major obstacle will be oxygen: how do you transport enough of the stuff to a planet some 140 million miles away, and what happens when it runs out? NASA and MIT have been working on an answer, by way of a groundbreaking device — currently located on the Red Planet, notably — that's been generating breathable oxygen from Mars’ carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere [since last year](). Known as the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), the gadget has been churning out oxygen from aboard the Mars Perseverance rover, marking the first time resources on another planetary body have been collected and then transformed for use. ## In Situ In a new study, [published]() in the journal *Science Advances* with MIT researchers, NASA scientists found that even when subjected to different seasons, times of day, and atmospheric conditions, the lunchbox-sized MOXIE was able to produce six grams of oxygen per hour — the equivalent of a small tree. That’s an impressive output for such a modest machine. Sure, MOXIE technology won’t be terraforming Mars anytime soon, but a reasonable scale-up could be enough to sustain a crew's habitat. ## Game Changer MOXIE could also help refuel rockets, which require massive amounts of oxygen, for return missions. The less oxygen needed to be transported, and the more that can be made on the spot, the better. The Space Shuttle, as an example, carried some 1.4 million pounds of liquid oxygen, and it didn’t need to fly to other planets, bring oxygen for a planetary surface habitat, and then fly back. "To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth, like computers, spacesuits, and habitats," said MIT researcher and study coauthor Jeffrey Hoffman [in a press release](). "But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it — you’re way ahead of the game." The researchers say the next step is ensuring MOXIE can run round the clock. Until now, it's only been running at intervals for a few hundred hours total, but a scaled up version will need to run continuously for thousands of hours. **More on Mars:** [*Mars Astronauts Would Get Horrifying Dose of Radiation, Study Finds*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()