NASA’s Perseverance rover just notched another first on Mars, one that may help pave the way for astronauts to explore the Red Planet someday.
The rover successfully used its MOXIE instrument to generate oxygen from the thin, carbon dioxide-dominated Martian atmosphere for the first time, demonstrating technology that could both help astronauts breathe and help propel the rockets that get them back home to Earth.
The MOXIE milestone occurred on Tuesday (April 20), just one day after Perseverance watched over another epic Martian first—the first Mars flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which rode to the Red Planeton the rover’s belly. (...)
