NASA is supporting an ISRU tech that might be 10 times more efficient at isolating oxygen on Mars than MOXIE - Universe Today by AndyTomaswick
, and a necessary life support gas. Any source of pure oxygen on Mars, or any other planet, would be welcomed by any human explorers there. Now a competing technology known as a “thermal swing sorption/desorption” cycle is being supported by NASA’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. Could it really be that much better?
To answer that question, first, it’s best to understand the capabilities of the MOXIE. The underlying technology, which utilizes a solid oxide electrolyzer cell, has been well understood and used on Earth for years. To make it work on Mars, engineers added an impeller to concentrate the Martian atmosphere. After it is pressurized, the atmosphere would heat up to 800 degrees C, and then the CO2 would undergo electrolysis to separate the oxygen from the carbon.
All that power consumption makes for an expensive system. A MOXIE machine that can create 2 kg O2 per hour would require around 25 kW of power, or slightly less than the average American house uses per day. While that may not seem like a lot, utilizing solar energy is a much more difficult prospect on Mars. Any early solar farm built to run the MOXIE system would dwarf the habitat it could supply with oxygen for just two astronauts.
Enter the TSSD, which nicely eliminates all three major problems with MOXIE. The system itself relies on a thermochemical pumping system, which relies on heat differentials to move the atmosphere to the appropriate place, eliminating the need for a mechanical pump. It also doesn’t suffer from carbon fouling as it doesn’t break apart CO2. Lastly, it doesn’t require too much energy, with Dr.
Image of Dr. Ivan Ermanoski, the PI on the NIAC project, handling another solar-thermochemical system.Details on how it will do all of this still need to be fleshed out, but conceptually the idea was backed up by a paper published back in March 2020. The NIAC project itself will continue that process. It seems to be a material science question of whether the right kinds of sorption materials can be found that work in the proper environmental conditions on Mars.
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