If humans land on Mars in the 2030s as planned, one thing that will be essential to their survival will be self-sufficiency, as they won’t be able to take too much cargo with them.
With this in mind NASA is testing whether oxygen can be created from Martian soil, without having to carry it all the way from Earth.
The innovative method would see bacteria or algae use the soil as fuel, pumping out usable oxygen in the process for astronauts on the surface.
NASA has been working with Techshot Inc of Greenville, Indiana to develop this method in a so-called ‘Mars room’, which mimics the conditions on the red planet.
It is able to simulate the atmospheric pressure on the planet, in addition to the day-night temperature changes and the solar radiation that hits the surface.
In experiments, certain organisms were capable of producing oxygen from Martian soil – known as regolith – and they also removed nitrogen from it.
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