NASA produces oxygen in Mars using apparatus carried by Perseverance rover

The dream of one day sending humans to Mars just got one step closer as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully produced oxygen in the Red Planet.

The oxygen was produced using the apparatus Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), which was carried by the Perseverance rover in preparation for the arrival of astronauts in Mars.

MOXIE currently produces six grams of oxygen per hour, equivalent to the capacity of one tree on Earth.

"It's a prototype of a small engine that will produce oxygen out of thin air. Thin air on Mars means carbon dioxide. We need this of course so that future astronauts will be able to breathe," said Michael Hecht of the MIT Haystack Observatory.

"We need far more oxygen to light up a rocket to take the astronauts home again."

Mars's atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide.

NASA plans to develop a bigger MOXIE to generate oxygen equivalent to the capacity of hundreds of trees on Earth.

If successful, it opens up the path for a power plant for the production of oxygen needed by astronauts to survive in the planet.

—MGP, GMA News