The oxygen factory on Mars
This means that we can build a real oxygen factory on Mars, locally producing enough oxygen to sustain future Mars inhabitants’ survival.
Humankind has always dreamed of life on Mars. However, the absence of essential substances like oxygen makes long-term survival on the planet a substantial challenge. Instead of transporting innumerable oxygen cylinders to the Red planet, it would be much more convenient to generate oxygen on site with materials already present there. That was easier said than done, but a newly developed robot-chemist appears to accomplish this task quite simply now.
The importance of Oxygen
If we actually want to inhabit the Red planet, oxygen is essential. It is not only necessary for us to breathe, but it can also serve as rocket fuel. If we can manufacture oxygen on site, that would naturally be very desirable. Shipping from Earth attaches significant costs. Jun Jiang, a researcher, tells Scientias.nl, “Transporting materials from Earth is extremely expensive and impractical. By using local Martian resources, we can break away from the costly dependency on supplies from Earth. This could allow us to stay longer on Mars and even build a permanent base, which increases people’s chances to explore Mars.”
Creating Oxygen on Mars
However, generating oxygen is not that easy. Mars’s atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, with only a small amount of oxygen (less than 0.2 percent). Compared to Earth, the amount of oxygen on Mars is meager. Fortunately, recent studies have shown that water is present on the Red planet, composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
Currently, scientists are investigating the option to split water to create oxygen. They propose doing this through ‘electrochemical water oxidation,’ powered by solar energy and with the aid of a catalyst. This method could produce oxygen on a large scale. The challenge is to find a method of making these catalysts on site using Mars materials to reduce transportation costs from Earth.
Researchers have succeeded in this. They developed an artificially intelligent robot capable of extracting catalysts from Mars materials, all without human intervention.
Mars Meteors and the Catalyst
The researchers initially selected five different types of meteorites known to originate from Mars. These Martian meteorites were then carefully analyzed by the robot, which searched for chemical compounds that could be turned into catalysts. The robot repeatedly tested how well these catalysts could produce oxygen until the best catalyst was found. And it did so much faster than a human could. Jiang states, “The most exciting thing is that the robot can find the best formula from three million possible combinations of five types of Mars meteorites in only six weeks. This is something a human would need 2000 years for.”
The smart robot can use resources already available on Mars to produce oxygen. It can find particles in Mars meteorites that can be used to create oxygen. The best catalyst discovered by the robot-chemist works well even under simulated Mars conditions. Jiang notes, “When we further tested the compound, we found that it remains stable even in icy Mars temperatures, where it can be -37 degrees Celsius.”
Oxygen Factory
Jiang states that with the robot, it should be possible to build a real oxygen factory on Mars. “With just fifteen hours of solar energy, we can produce enough oxygen to enable human survival. This innovative technology brings us closer to realizing our dream of living on Mars.”
Improvement of the Robot
Despite the impressive results, the robot built is not the model that will indeed be working on Mars. The researchers plan to further improve and refine the robot. “To make the robot even more potent in the future, we plan to equip it with more sensors and spectroscopic eyes, enabling it to investigate and predict the microscopic evolution of chemicals even better,” states Jiang.
A Big Step Forward
While there’s still work to be done, the study represents a significant leap forward, bringing the long-awaited colonization of the Red planet one step closer. “We are firmly convinced that the technological advancement we have made represents a significant progress in our ability to use resources outside Earth,” says Jiang. “This is not only relevant for Mars but also for the moon, asteroids, and other places that might be explored and colonized in the future.”
Jiang is very excited about his contribution. “When I was still a boy, I dreamed of interstellar exploration,” he shares. “So when we finally saw that the catalysts made by the robot are indeed capable of producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, it was as if my dream was really coming true. I even start to fantasize that I will live on Mars in the future.”
