It’s great that NASA has been able to create oxygen on the Red Planet but don't think of colonising it
For those who have grown up watching sci-fi movies like Species, Total Recall, The Martian, Marvin the Martian and so on, the Red Planet holds a lot of fascination. It is not just popular culture that is obsessed with Mars, our scientists, too, are consumed with the possibility of humanity being able to live on it one day. This is because Mars is potentially the most habitable planet so close to us. Many believe that the first manned space flight to Mars is only a matter of time and that it will eventually be followed by its colonisation by humankind. In fact, many countries and private firms are heavily involved in the race to colonise the Red Planet. The US, as usual, is far ahead of the others in the great space race. And, in a landmark development which will have a far-reaching impact on making future manned missions to Mars a reality, Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, converted some of the planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-sized, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance, called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment (MOXIE), accomplished the task. The test took place on April 20, the 60th Martian day since the mission landed on February 18.
While the technology demonstrated by NASA is still in the nascent stage and MOXIE’s oxygen production was a meagre five grams, which is equivalent to about 10 minutes worth of breathable oxygen for an astronaut, it is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour. However, NASA is jubilant as this baby step will pave the way for science fiction to become a science fact. In the future, the US could isolate and store oxygen on Mars for its astronauts to live and work there, besides helping power rockets to lift them off the planet’s surface. No doubt it is a giant leap for humanity, but what about our Blue Planet? Instead of planning to get our greedy hands on other celestial bodies to ruin them the way we have done the Earth, the time, effort and money would be better spent on finding solutions to the problems created by us here. While it is good to be ambitious in the interest of science, we must not forget that we owe the planet we live on a great debt as we have all but made it inhospitable. Let us look after the Earth, the only planet we call home.