MARS ENGINEERING · FIRST OXYGEN
You cannot breathe the Martian air. This machine takes it apart.
Onboard NASA's Perseverance rover, a small experiment proved oxygen could be made from the atmosphere of another world. Step inside the mechanism.
Operate the machineFIG. 01 · A WORKING EXPERIMENT
The component descriptions and chemistry below remain available while the interactive view loads.
Follow the carbon dioxide as it enters the machine, is compressed, then passes through a very hot solid-oxide electrolysis cell. The oxygen is measured. Carbon monoxide and remaining gases leave through the exhaust.
The remarkable part is not just splitting CO₂. The electrically charged oxygen atoms travel through a solid ceramic membrane. The other gases cannot follow.
Electricity supplies electrons to the cathode and removes them from the anode through the external circuit. Only oxygen ions cross the ceramic.
Conceptual cell cross-section, not flight hardware dimensions. Ion flow and separated-gas paths are functional representations. Read the published MOXIE research ↗
The hardware separates two gas streams. Monitoring tells the team what was produced, but MOXIE was a demonstration, not a storage system for people.
Composition and purity measured. Heat recovered and gas cooled, then filtered before venting to the Martian atmosphere.
Carbon monoxide, unconverted carbon dioxide and atmospheric trace gases are monitored, cooled and filtered before their separate vent.
THE SMALL RETURN LOOP. A small portion of the cathode exhaust goes back to the compressor inlet. Its carbon monoxide helps protect nickel electrodes from oxidation. This is not oxygen recycling.
Functional order and material paths are sourced, but the tiny hardware shapes and hose positions in our 3D illustration are reconstructions, not flight CAD. Sources: NASA Planetary Data System ↗ · Instrument overview ↗
THE CHEMISTRY
Carbon dioxide holds the oxygen we need, but separating it takes energy. For every two molecules of CO₂, the machine can make one molecule of breathable O₂ and two molecules of carbon monoxide.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
MOXIE proved an idea. Arcadia City needs a whole oxygen system: water electrolysis first, an independent atmospheric oxygen source, carbon-dioxide removal and oxygen held in reserve. Explore how life support fits into the city.