> After a two-hour warmup period, MOXIE began producing oxygen at a rate of 6 grams per hour. The rate was reduced two times during the run (labeled as “current sweeps”) in order to assess the status of the instrument. After an hour of operation the total oxygen produced was about 5.4 grams, enough to keep an astronaut healthy for about 10 minutes of normal activity.
How would you measure the efficiency of this process? I’m assuming this was merely test hardware and an at-scale implementation would be much better. 5.4g/hour for 10min of breathing in a “first try” of this seems, to a KSP-trained laymen, like a pretty good trade?
I wonder if this counts as the first resource extraction beyond earth?
Many samples have been taken and returned by people and machines.
So it's like the opposite of a catalytic converter in a car?