For humans to endure trips to Mars, they’ll require oxygen—both to breathe and to fuel their rockets for transport back to Earth. Now, a team of researchers have created a robot that can extract oxygen from water on the Red Planet, per a paper issued in the journal Nature Synthesis.
The robot, which the team calls an “A.I. chemist,” utilizes a machine learning model to find a composite that could kindle an oxygen-producing chemical response on Mars. The compound, identified as a catalyst, is made totally from elements found in Martian meteorites—which indicates, if such a scheme could work dependably, space voyagers would not require to bring oxygen or even the catalyst required to produce it.
If you think about the encounter of going to Mars, you have to work with local resources, Andy Cooper, a chemist at the University of Liverpool in England who did not associate to the findings, tells Nature News’ Jonathan O’Callaghan. “So, I can see the logic behind it.”
Mars’ atmosphere comprises only trace amounts of oxygen. But researchers have noticed indication of liquid water underneath the planet’s southern ice cap, as well as water ice beneath the surface. To generate the breathable gas, scientists required to find a way to break down this water into its hydrogen and oxygen molecules by means of materials found on Mars.
Their robot examined five meteorites that either originated from Mars or had a configuration comparable to that of the Martian surface. By means of a laser, it recognized substantial amounts of iron, nickel, calcium, magnesium, aluminum and manganese in the samples.
From these six elements, the robot’s algorithm determined it could produce more than 3.7 million probable molecules to break down water and form oxygen on the Red Planet. Finding the best one from this general list would take roughly 2,000 years of work, the study authors write.
But for the A.I. chemist, this conclusion process took only a matter of weeks. To arrive at the best formula, the robot examined the statistics with machine learning algorithms and hypothetical models. It made and verified 243 of the probable catalysts, according to Space.com’s Charles Q. Choi.
On Earth, we do not utilize these six elements, because we have more options. Yi Luo, a co-author of the study and investigator at the University of Science and Technology of China, informs New Scientist’s Alex Wilkins. These six elements are not the greatest for this kind of catalyst, and it restrict its performance, but it’s all there is on Mars.
With its selected catalyst, the system could harvest oxygen from the Martian resources at around minus 37 degrees Celsius, signifying the chemical response could be practicable on the cold Martian surface.
Especially, the robot was able to transmit out the entire procedure—examining the rock samples, recognizing the best possible catalyst and creating it—without human interference.
We have established a robotic A.I. system that has a chemistry brain, Jun Jiang, a co-author of the paper also at the University of Science and Technology of China, tells Nature News. “We think our mechanism can make use of composites in Martian ores without human guidance.”
Other investigators have already effectively made small amounts of breathable oxygen on Mars’ surface. A lunchbox-sized device on NASA’s Persistence rover, called MOXIE, produced oxygen at the frequency of six grams per hour during tests in 2021—similar to a small tree, Vice’s Sarah Wells stated last year. That device works by condensing and heating carbon dioxide from Mars’ atmosphere.
Michael Hecht, lead investigator for the research on the Perseverance rover, informs Nature News that it would be much easier to practice a scaled-up version of the MOXIE system to harvest oxygen on Mars, instead of placing trust on the A.I. chemist.
Presently, the authors of the innovative study will have to see if their robot can work in the Martian setting, where “the atmospheric configuration, air density, humidity, gravity and so on are so diverse than those on Earth,” Jiang tells Space.com. To get [the robot] to work is a non-trivial accomplishment, because you have to get numerous parts working together, Ross King, who studies the mechanization of scientific study at the University of Cambridge in England and did not contribute to the new paper, speaks to New Scientist.
