6 Sept 2023

MOXIE made 122 grams of oxygen from Martian air over 16 runs

Space and aerospace
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

Across 16 runs aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, the MOXIE instrument produced a total of 122 grams of oxygen by separating oxygen from carbon dioxide pumped in from the thin Martian atmosphere. Its best hourly rate was 12 grams of oxygen, at 98% purity or better. NASA says MOXIE was operated under a variety of conditions across a full Mars year, but the announcement does not list those conditions for each run. The final run, on 7 August, produced 9.8 grams.

Why it matters

The result suggests that a small electrochemical instrument can make oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide across a range of conditions over a full Mars year. It may inform the design of larger resource systems, although the demonstration was at small scale and does not show that a crew or rocket-propellant plant would work.

Caveats

  • The 12 grams per hour figure is the instrument's best rate, not an average across all 16 runs, and the announcement does not give the conditions for that run.
  • This was a demonstration instrument. The announcement does not report power use, long-term reliability, maintenance or performance at larger scale.
  • The record relies only on NASA's September 2023 mission-end announcement. No other publication was used for its figures.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. other
    NASA's Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission
    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 6 Sept 2023.

Last reviewed 22 Oct 2026.