A small experiment on a NASA rover is tinkering with the alien atmosphere.
Millions of miles away on Mars, in a barren crater just north of the equator, a rover is wandering around, carrying a gold-coated gadget the size of a toaster. The machine inhales the Martian air and strips away contaminants. It splits the atmospheric gas into constituent parts, takes what it needs, and then reassembles that blend to create something that is in very short supply on Mars: oxygen. Real, breathable oxygen, the kind you took in as you read these sentences.
After a bit of analysis, the machine puffs out the oxygen, harmlessly releasing the molecules into the Martian environment. The act makes this very sophisticated toaster, situated in the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover, the closest thing to a small tree on Mars.
Beardy Guy Musings
Living and working in a tiny house the woods. I freelance as Beardy Guy Creative where I design and create websites, newsletters, annual reports and and all manner of graphics and documents. I experiment with ways to live a low impact life and write about the climate emergency, Apple and the iPad. Lately I've also been posting often about Israel's genocide against the Palestinians. Living on the traditional territory of: - O-ga-xpa Ma-zhoⁿ (O-ga-xpa) (Quapaw) - Očhéthi Šakówiŋ - Kaskaskia - Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo)