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Oxygen on Mars? Science fiction could become science fact

MIP
The MIP  

March 20, 2000
Web posted at: 12:37 PM EST (1737 GMT)

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas (CNN) -- How realistic is the notion that humans will someday make their own breathing air on the red planet, like in the Hollywood hit "Mission to Mars?" Very. In fact, NASA engineers this month are testing the prototype of a device that could allow future Mars colonists to produce their own oxygen.

Technicians at the Johnson Space Center in Houston began subjecting the Mars In-situ Propellant Production Precursor (MIP) to rigorous tests last week to make sure it can work in the planet's harsh environment, said MIP project manager Jim Ratliff.

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JSC personnel will subject the oven-sized box and its software to both the hottest and coldest temperature extremes found on Mars.

During tests in 1999, the MIP unit successfully produced oxygen from a gas environment that simulated Mars' extremely thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere.

"The concept is to use the resources on Mars to reduce the amount of material that needs to accompany a human mission ... to live off the land," JSC mission engineer David Kaplan said in a statement.

Lander 2001
Arist's concept of the Mars 2001 lander  

Producing oxygen using materials readily available on Mars would be an important step toward reducing the costs and risks of an eventual human mission to Mars, Kaplan said.

If all goes well, an identical MIP unit is scheduled to go aloft on the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander next year. But two failures with martian robot ships in late 1999 could push the launch back to 2003, said Matthias Gottmann, a University of Arizona engineer in Tucson, Arizona, who helped build the MIP.

The MIP project is slated to become the first experiment to produce materials for human consumption from extraterrestrial resources.

Beside life support, oxygen produced by MIP on Mars can serve as rocket propellant for missions returning to Earth, whether robotic or human, according to NASA.

The lander mission will also explore the mineralogy of the landing site, near the martian equator, by taking visible and infrared pictures of the terrain and deploying a rover similar to Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner. Other equipment will analyze martian soil and surface radiation.



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RELATED SITES:
MIP project
Mars Surveyor 2001

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