Adequate oxygen oxygen and fuel transport on the spacecraft to sustain the mission at any location close to that length of time, although it is not currently possible.
Scientists at the University of Washington in St. Louis have now said they may have come up with another technology that will complement MOXIE.
The MOXIE system essentially produces a tree-like oxygen – pumped into the pumpkin air and using an electrochemical process to separate two oxygen atoms from each atom of carbon dioxide or CO2.
The experimental technique proposed by Vijay Ramani and his colleagues uses completely different resources – salt water in the lakes below the surface of Mars.
Ramani, a distinguished professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, and his colleagues visited PNS last week. A study published in the journal.
Martin Lakes?
“The presence of the sea is lucky because it reduces the freezing point of water. You take salt, hard water and electrolyze. Our process takes water and breaks it down into hydrogen and oxygen,” Ramani said.
The method proposed in the new paper, however, assumes that these brines are readily available on Mars, said NASA’s chief investigator and micro-hatchery for research management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Hast Hay Observatory.
“No evidence of bulk brain deposits has been found, and although some may be in stable form, I do not expect to find them as liquids,” Hatchett said by email. “What the authors are pointing out is that while the melting point may be -0C, the freezing point on Mars is also around -70C, so if these liquid brins did not exist it would eventually just evaporate (more accurately, Submitted). ”
One day, the electrolysis of water is important for fuel production on Mars, but not as outlined in the paper, Hatchett said.
“Regular ice … there is plenty on Mars and not hard to find. There is also no reason for the ice to melt to get water, which can then eventually be co-electrolyzed with CO2 to produce both oxygen and methane,” he said. Said by email.
Ramani described his research project as an “early metal” – his team specialized in seawater electrolysis.
“We came across these reports about the amount of salt water on Mars and we said why not,” he said.
“We are not funded by NASA or any space-related program, but we hope that if we get enough traction with this work, we hope to offer it as a complement to MOXIE and other systems in the future.”
“Our hope is that in the next 10, 15 years we will be able to move forward to make its system competitive.”
Testing MOXIE
NASA’s MOXIE team will study how the smaller, toaster-sized version works on the Perseverance Rover and use the lessons learned to develop a larger and more powerful system for crew missions.
This experiment will help researchers learn how many environmental factors, including dust storms, wind and sand, and the temperature of carbon dioxide can affect MOXIE. Scientists also need to know how radiation can affect its software.
Hatchet said NASA’s focus will be on oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars. While ice may prove useful in the future, he said, it should be considered as a mineral that can be used before it can be potentially racted and refined. In addition, the ice on Mars is found mainly at lat latitudes, which at least first NASA wants to land humans, he added.
“It’s easy to get oxygen from the air by comparison because it’s everywhere, you don’t have to dig anything, and that’s why we’re doing it first.”
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