At long last, we can finally breathe on Mars!
Okay, wait, don't take your helmet off just yet.
Still this is pretty cool:
If you thought packing the car for a cross-country move was hard, packing a space shuttle for a move to Mars will be a new kind of headache. In addition to bringing items like food and water, spaceships heading to the red planet will also need to bring scientific experiments, emergency supplies, and living habitats.
Luckily for these pioneering astronauts though, it looks like one of the heaviest — and most important — resources will be provided on site: oxygen. In fact, a lunchbox-sized device currently on the surface of Mars is already reliably generating as much oxygen as a tree, scientists revealed on Wednesday.
Just imagine, not too long in the future you'll be able to step out front of your home on Mars Avenue in Martian City, Marstopia, and enjoy a nice clean breath of fresh Martian air like:
It'll be great!
Here's how this magnificent little doohickey works:
MOXIE first landed on Mars in February 2021 and since then has been powered up seven different times under different seasonal and weather conditions to create oxygen using compounds in the Martian atmosphere like CO2. This air is passed through a HEPA filter to remove any dust, heated to 800 degrees Celsius and compressed such that it breaks apart into just oxygen ions and CO. The oxygen ions are then isolated and recombined to create breathable and combustible O2.
Before long on every Martian streetcorner you'll be hearing the sweet strains of Earthling songwriter Anna Nalick blaring out of every Martian lowrider coaxial:
The future is bright, and breathable too!
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