Colonization of Mars is becoming more and more real; However, there is still a big challenge – what will we breathe on the red planet. If extremely low temperatures and cosmic radiation don’t kill us, unbreathable gas will undoubtedly kill us. Now, Metzier’s team has proposed a new method to solve this problem — splitting carbon dioxide (which is abundant on Mars) into carbon and oxygen.
The main barrier to the settlement and survival of people beyond the Earth is the non-use of the resources available on the ground or their absence at all. Until humans use the resources on Mars as rationally as possible to live there, our species will not be able to settle on the Red Planet.
The team of scientists proposed the use of non-thermal plasma: an electrically charged gas whose electrons can be directed to split the carbon dioxide molecule into carbon and oxygen atoms. Under laboratory conditions, the team managed to cool the plasma to Martian temperatures. The study was published in the journal Applied Physics.
“The natural conditions on Mars are ideal for plasma to use resources on the ground,” says Vasco Guerra, a physicist at the University of Lisbon. “In particular, the composition of the atmosphere, the ambient pressure and temperature act in favor of plasma processes.”
Oxygen was isolated on Mars last year. Last year, as part of the MOXIE experiment, NASA’s Perseverance rover extracted a small amount (5 grams) of oxygen from the planet’s atmosphere. MOXIE was a kind of test of whether it is possible to obtain oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. Now it has been approved and people are working on increasing the amount of oxygen released.
Oxygen is needed by humans for breathing, but it is also necessary for the production of fuel and fertilizers. Carbon monoxide is also used for spacecraft fuel. In short, humans would greatly benefit from being able to break down the Martian atmosphere into its constituent units.
Splitting carbon dioxide and storing it into constituents with non-thermal plasmas and permeable membranes is a new technology, which means it’s still some time before humans are actually ready to settle on Mars and use local resources. In any case, this is a very important step towards mastering the environment beyond Earth.
Discussion about this post