Mars air proof: Tiny MOXIE device demonstrates oxygen production on the Red Planet

NASA’s MOXIE, a microwave-sized instrument aboard the Perseverance rover, produced breathable oxygen from Martian CO2 between 2021 and 2023—5.4 g in its first hour and a total of 122 g across 16 runs—demonstrating that solid oxide electrolysis works on Mars and validating in-situ resource utilization in principle. However, turning this into a crewed-Mars capability would require a much larger, continuously powered system (targeting about 2–3 kg of O2 per hour and 25–30 kW) known as Big MOXIE, which is not yet built and faces significant engineering and mission challenges.