It is no secret that Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars. One of his most intense ‘dreams’ is for people to start walking and living on the Red Planet, as it may be the one and only alternative that we have – aside from the Earth. But, there was no progress until now.
Before saying, ‘But we need to take care of the Earth first’, let me stop you. Yes, we are aware that at the moment we don’t have an additional planet. This one is the only one we have. However, a breakthrough discovery like this might boost our way to becoming a multi-planetary species.
Elon Musk Is Happy – A Machine Produced Oxygen On Mars
Elon Musk pointed out the year 2026 as the year he would be able to transport people to Mars through his SpaceX company. He added that it may even happen ‘earlier if we are lucky’. This seems a bit overambitious. However, now, after this breakthrough discovery, this vision seems like it could become reality. NASA was able to produce oxygen on Mars seven times in the past 18 months. Yes, it is official, we can produce oxygen on Mars.
NASA reported that they designed a device the size of a lunchbox that can transport carbon dioxide to Mars. The device can produce oxygen by converting carbon dioxide.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment – or ‘Moxie’ is the name of the project that’s made public now. According to NASA, the device can produce oxygen, around the equivalent of a small tree. While NASA tested oxygen production at different times of the day, at different seasons, and at night, they found out we can produce oxygen equally.
“We have learned a tremendous amount that will inform future systems at a larger scale.” – a research scientist at MIT, Dr. Michael Hecht told the Daily Star after working on the project.
“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body. Transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission.” – Jeffrey Hoffman, a deputy principal investigator added. “It’s historic in that sense.”
The production of oxygen on Mars is boosting Elon Musk’s dream of visiting Mars and being able to come back from there. The oxygen production can fuel a rocket for launching for a return. It means that astronauts can walk on mars without initially using any breathing devices, etc.
Elon Musk’s dream is to commercialize flying to Mars. He wants to create a ferry that will fly to Mars on regular basis. While this is a very ambitious dream, with us being able to produce oxygen on Marks, it may become reality, even before 2026.
