Smart chemical robot may produce oxygen on Mars
Researchers in China have developed a smart chemical robot that may be capable of extracting oxygen from water on the surface of Mars.
According to the scientific journal “Nature,” the AI-powered robot will use materials found on the red planet to produce catalysts that facilitate water extraction and oxygen production.
The research team stated that artificial intelligence has led to the possibility of analyzing water, known to exist in the form of ice in Mars’ poles and beneath its surface, in a process that would have taken human research around two thousand years.
The study, led by John Jiang from the University of Science and Technology of China, used a refrigerator-sized mobile machine equipped with a mechanical arm to analyze five meteorite stones collected from Mars or Earth.
The team’s goal was to verify whether the machine could produce useful catalysts from the available materials.
According to the results obtained, the robot succeeded in analyzing water, and the team mentioned that the robot might be able to produce oxygen from it, with the possibility of using it in future Mars missions.
Andy Cooper, a chemist at the University of Liverpool, commented: “If you think about the challenge of going to Mars, you have to use local materials. So, I see the idea of the robot as logical.”
