[Three of Seven]

I often browse through the news sites and my RSS feed for any headlines, this one caught me eye, I suspect there might be a scientific journal that has a more indepth look into this, I'll see if I can find a link by the end of this post for that!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28582903

Looking at the image given, this looks to be a somewhat international effort as well, which is great (although I see a lack of UK flags!) but not only will this rover collect and return useful scientific information, it's also been designed to convert the CO2 to Oxygen. The plan looks to be to create an atmosphere suitable for manned missions, if it works, there might be more exploration in the future. Although I suspect Mars might be one of the easier planets to convert, some others like gas giants might prove more of a challenge!

Anyway, as promised, here is some further reading for you.

NASA Website: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/july/.../#.U9vYoGPm7po

New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.U9vYt2Pm7po

It would be nice to hope that there will be some space exploration done in my lifetime, hopefully when I finally turn 20, it might happen! But this rover isn't too far away, let's hope for more missions, I don't think there should be a cost limit on space exploration, it should certainly be an international effort.

[Gillion]

I rover that only ways 40kg is supposed to produce enough Oxygen for people to breath? I think its going to be more of an experiment to see how the equipment performs. If they actually wanted to produce oxygen for people to breath it would just disperse really quick and take the rover at least a few dozen years to produce enough, if its even possible that is.

However it is cool.

[Three of Seven]

Yeah, the NASA site states that it will be an experiment to see how the resources can be used to create oxygen, if it works, then that's good news for the future!

[Hermanator]

They seem to have their eyes set towards that lifetime mission to mars. If this ended up working, you know, it would be useful.

[Solace]

Intriguing find there three!

There was some talk a couple of years ago about a new space craft to replace the Space Shuttle, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (OMPCV). With this rover having the tech to convert CO2 in Oxygen I can see a manned mission to mars happening in the following year(s).

Further reading on OMPCV if you're interested: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/syst.../#.U-DbF_ldW3w

[Curzon Peers]

Yeah, good luck with that. . .
Converting the atmosphere to oxygen is just one of the many things you need to do to support a mission of that duration, not to mention the fact that you have to meet the life support requirements for several months in transit.

Manned trips to Mars are still, likely, some decades away given the glacial pace the various space agencies have been progressing.

Still an experiment to prove the practical application of in situ resource utilization is great. I can't seem to find it in the articles, do they mention what process they plan to use to convert the CO2?

[Solace]

Yeah, good luck with that. . .
Converting the atmosphere to oxygen is just one of the many things you need to do to support a mission of that duration, not to mention the fact that you have to meet the life support requirements for several months in transit.

Manned trips to Mars are still, likely, some decades away given the glacial pace the various space agencies have been progressing.

Still an experiment to prove the practical application of in situ resource utilization is great. I can't seem to find it in the articles, do they mention what process they plan to use to convert the CO2?

To answer that question I imagine it would a similar system employed to make toxic gases inert in say a Powerplant?

I expect it would be the process whereby the Carbon atom (C) is removed and neutralized to leave the O2 and then release it into the atmosphere, although it's highly likely that the technology they plan to use is still in the experimental stages?

[Curzon Peers]

There's multiple ways to go about that. Do they mention anywhere which specific process they plan to use? The one I hear about most often is the Sabatier process to create methane and water then electrolysis to liberate the oxygen and reuse the hydrogen to convert more CO2, but there's a few other methods they could use.