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Mars’ underground brine May be a Great source of oxygen

The Pathfinder rover took this photo. It didn't need oxygen, unlike the weak, fleshy humans that would like to follow its path.

Expand / The Pathfinder rover took this picture. It did not require oxygen, despite the poor, fleshy people who’d love to trace its route. (charge: NASA)

If people are ever likely to go to Mars, they might well have to generate some important resources while they’re there to be able to endure long enough to research and restock for the long return journey. Even though the times of flowing water have been long gone, even the red planet isn’t completely without the raw components to produce this work.

The Mars 2020 assignment that started in July is taking a experiment with precisely this aim in your mind. MOXIE–that the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Happens –is still a box not much larger than a toaster which generates oxygen in atmospheric COtwo . Though a much bigger version will be asked to earn liquid-oxygen fuel for a rocket, then MOXIE is sized to make about the sum of oxygen an energetic person should breathe.

A new study headed by Pralay Gayen in Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, evaluations a system that may tap another source –perchlorate brine considered to exist at the Martian floor at some places. The apparatus can divide the water from that brine, generating pure hydrogen and oxygen.

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