The Mystifying Solution to Mars' Oxygen Problem

Explore the critical challenges and innovative solutions for producing oxygen on Mars as NASA and other space agencies race to make human colonization beyond Earth possible.

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1/21/20256 min read

Setting Up Human Habitation on Mars

NASA plans to set up a base on the Moon before sending humans to Mars, making the journey to Mars shorter. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, wants to win the race to Mars. Besides him, European and Russian space agencies are also talking about sending humans to Mars. But the big question is, how will people survive in Mars' harsh atmosphere after landing? Unlike Earth, there's no oxygen on Mars, which is essential for life. NASA has figured out a way to produce oxygen on Mars, and it's related to the International Space Station.

Challenges of Oxygen Production on Mars

Oxygen is produced in a way that won’t work on Mars. Welcome back, viewers! There are plenty of reasons behind humans wanting to live on Mars. Sure, there's the whole scientific exploration and curiosity about space, but there's also a bit of urgency or fear. What if something happens on Earth that wipes out humanity, like how the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago? It's definitely possible, and we're seeing examples of this with climate change right now.

The Race to Mars and Survival Challenges

That’s probably the biggest reason why, in the future, someone will become the next Neil Armstrong on Mars. On one hand, Musk had originally planned to colonize Mars by 2026, but now he's predicting 2029, slightly pushing back the expected date for sending the first human to Mars to 2029. So, let’s see if we can build a production system for making that happen. On the other hand, another company also aims to land humans on Mars by 2030. But the real question isn’t who will get to Mars first; it’s how humans will survive once they get there.

Similarities and Differences Between Earth and Mars

For sure, Mars has a lot of similarities to Earth. For instance, a day on Mars, known as a Martian day or sol, is just 39 minutes longer than a day on Earth. There are different weather patterns there too, and just like Earth, Mars has ice caps at its poles, as well as a thin atmosphere. However, one major issue for humans living on Mars is the lack of oxygen. So, the big question is, how will we create oxygen gas on Mars?

Learning from the International Space Station

When we talk about keeping humans alive in extreme situations, not just for two people but for an entire colony on Mars, the first thing that comes to mind is the ISS, or International Space Station. It’s been up there for 25 years, enduring the harsh conditions of space, and has continuously provided oxygen and fresh water for people. There are usually four to five astronauts on the ISS at any given time, and they need at least 45 liters of water each day, which adds up to about 1,350 liters a month and 16,200 liters a year. On top of that, the ISS has 1,000...

The Oxygen Generation Challenges

The ISS uses a lot of oxygen gas every year, and it’s pretty wild to think about how water and oxygen are created 400 kilometers away in space. There are two systems in place for this: one is the Water Reclamation System (WRS) and the other is the Oxygen Generation System (OGS). To understand why we can't use these systems on Mars, we need to first know how they actually work. The Water Reclamation System collects water from human waste, like urine, sweat, and humidity, then cleans it up so it’s safe to drink again.

Potential Solutions and Innovations

Astronaut Douglas V. Locke once said that our coffee from yesterday makes the coffee for tomorrow. The Water Recovery System (WRS) on the ISS purifies the water that's already there so it can be reused, saving about 98% of water from going to waste. Next to that is the Oxygen Generation System. This system takes a little bit of water from the WRS and runs it through a special process to create oxygen for us to breathe. It’s a simple process we learned in fifth grade called electrolysis, where an electrical current is passed through water.

The Sabatier System and its Role

Water gets converted into oxygen gas and hydrogen gas. We use oxygen gas for breathing, but hydrogen is super dangerous and flammable; it can turn the whole ISS into a fireball in seconds. Instead of wasting this hydrogen gas, it gets sent to another system called the Sabatier system. This system collects the astronauts' waste carbon dioxide on the ISS, mixes it with hydrogen gas, and produces water, methane gas, and some heat. The water is reused.

The Challenges of Refueling and Cost

They're putting it into the management system, but methane gas, which is really important for the economy, gets shot out into space from the ISS. Methane is a type of fuel; it can generate energy and heat, but it gets wasted because it needs oxygen to burn, and oxygen is the most valuable thing up on the ISS. If you look closely at the whole process of oxygen and water on the ISS, it really depends on refueling missions. Sure, they're 98% efficient, but every system has its losses.

Innovations with MOXIE on Mars

Leaks are bound to happen, which is why every six months or so, they bring water and oxygen from the ground to the ISS. These refueling missions are super expensive; it costs over $10,000 just to send one liter of water 400 km up to the ISS. So, making oxygen on Mars using the same method isn’t cost-effective at all. We need to create a system that uses resources available on Mars to produce oxygen. That’s what NASA’s Perseverance rover was sent to do in 2021.

MOXIE: Mankind's Hope for Oxygen on Mars

They set up a device for this experiment called MOXIE, which stands for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. On the ISS, they can refill water, but on Mars, they'd have to either go to the polar caps to find water or drill several feet down to extract ice. That's why MOXIE creates oxygen using carbon dioxide from Mars' atmosphere. To put it simply, Mars' atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide, and MOXIE uses that.

Technical Advancement and Future Prospects

It pumps carbon dioxide and pressurizes it, then puts it in an electrolyzer and heats it up to 800 degrees Celsius. This process separates oxygen gas from the carbon dioxide. The electrolyzer is made of gold because gold is an excellent heat conductor, which protects the other parts from getting too hot. Along with oxygen gas, carbon monoxide is also produced in this process. The downside is that if carbon is completely separated out in this process..

Challenges in Developing Efficient Systems

It can create a layer of carbon, similar to what you see under cooking pans, and this layer can quickly damage the Perseverance rover. That's why this process is done with a lot of caution. However, on Mars, MOXIE produces a limited amount of oxygen at a time, and it requires a lot of energy to do so. Because of this, NASA only runs it occasionally when there's extra energy from the solar panels. So far, it has only made 122 grams of oxygen, which is enough to keep a person alive for just about 35 hours.

Innovations and Future Technologies

To produce more oxygen on Mars through the system, a larger version of MOXIE will be needed, along with a big power plant to run it, and that's the biggest challenge so far. Now, it's important to understand that MOXIE compresses carbon dioxide first using a compressor, and then heats it up to 800 degrees Celsius. Both of these processes require a lot of energy. To tackle this issue, scientists are working on a future technology that would break down carbon dioxide molecules at a lower temperature.

Vibrations: The Future of Oxygen Extraction?

Instead of heating carbon dioxide, we're going to create vibrations to separate oxygen molecules from it. This technology has been tested in a lab, but due to Earth's high atmospheric pressure and temperature, we can't do this experiment here. However, Mars' atmosphere is perfect for this type of work. No matter the technology, our goal is to produce oxygen on Mars using only the resources available there, and the devices that will generate this oxygen will be designed accordingly.

The Importance of Self-Sufficiency in Mars Colonization

Dependency shouldn't be too much of a concern because the ISS is only about 400 km away from Earth. If their oxygen generation system fails, getting the astronauts back isn't a huge deal—they can just put on their emergency suits and wait a few hours for refueling before heading back. But if something goes wrong with the oxygen generation system after colonizing Mars, there won’t be any refueling options, and getting back to Earth won’t be as easy.

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