Making Oxygen on Mars - Challenges, Lessons, and Next Step (02/12/22)
Speaker and Affliation:
Dr. S. Elangovan
OxEon Energy, LLC, North Salt Lake, UT 84009, USA
When?
2nd December, 2022 (Friday), 11:00 AM (India Standard Time)
Venue
KPA Auditorium, Department of Materials Engineering
About the talk
OxEon Energy team led the development of solid oxide electrolysis stack for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. Installed in the Perseverance Rover, a stack has been operated eleven times so far to demonstrate the production of high purity oxygen by electrolyzing Mars atmosphere CO2. During development, challenges related to the design for high purity oxygen production, and the mechanical robustness required for space missions were systematically evaluated. This project, termed MOXIE is the first ever demonstration of producing anything in another planet using materials that are not brought from earth. Follow on projects are underway to scale up the device for a future manned mission.