Abstract By the time of the 2022 IAC, NASA's Mars2020 Perseverance rover will have spent 18 months on the surface of Mars, during which time the MOXIE experiment (Mars OXygen ISRU Experiment) will have produced oxygen at night and in the day during both the annual maximum and minimum atmospheric density periods, as well as at many other times during the year. MOXIE is the first demonstration of the use of indigenous resources (ISRU = In Situ Resource Utilization) on the surface of another planet. This paper will present a summary of what MOXIE has accomplished, how its performance on Mars has changed with time, and plans for the future. The paper will also present results from an optimization study of a human-scale MOXIE-type system capable of providing the oxidizer for a 6–person Mars Ascent Vehicle. As an experiment carried inside the rover, MOXIE had to satisfy many constraints that would not apply to an independent, full-scale system. Other potential oxygen-producing technologies should be compared to the optimized human-scale system results summarized in this paper rather than to a simple linear scaling of the mass, power consumption, and oxygen production rate of MOXIE.

    Highlights MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) has successfully demonstrated a solid oxide electrolysis technology for extracting oxygen from the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere. The in-situ production of oxygen is necessary for sustainable human Mars exploration, mainly for the combustion process powering a rocket to return from the Martian surface to space. Bringing all this oxygen to Mars from the Earth would require multiple launches of costly Saturn 5-class rockets, which would be a serious impediment to sustainable human exploration of Mars. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) for planetary exploration (i.e., “living off the land”) has been discussed and written about for decades, but MOXIE is the first experiment to actually demonstrate ISRU on the surface of another planet. The article summarizes the purpose and method of operation of MOXIE, shows the results of oxygen production so far, and shows how operating MOXIE informs the design of future larger-scale oxygen-producing systems.


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    Titel :

    18 Months of MOXIE (Mars oxygen ISRU experiment) operations on the surface of Mars - Preparing for human Mars exploration


    Beteiligte:

    Erschienen in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 210 ; 547-553


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2023-04-25


    Format / Umfang :

    7 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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