Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars - The Electrochemical Society Interface - IOPscience
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The Electrochemical Society
Interface
FEATURED ARTICLES
Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars
To cite this article: E. Jennings Taylor and Gregory S. Jackson 2021 Electrochem. Soc. Interface 30 79
View the article online for updates and enhancements.
This content was downloaded from IP address 46.4.80.155 on 05/08/2021 at 09:36
Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars
by E. Jennings Taylor and Gregory S. Jackson
O
n February 18, 2021, at 3:55 p.m. EST, NASA’s Sensors for Space, 5) Electrochemistry for Space Resource
Perseverance rover landed at the Jezero Crater on Utilization, and 6) Materials Processing for Space Applications. The
Mars. Perseverance is NASA’s most advanced rover symposium was highlighted in the spring 2020 issue of Interface.4
to date and traveled 293 million miles (472 million A follow-up symposium, Electrochemistry in Space 2, is set for the
kilometers) over 203 days; an average speed of over 240th ECS meeting (Orlando, FL), October 10-14, 2021.5
60,000 miles per hour! After several weeks of testing, Perseverance
will begin a two-year exploration of Mars’ Jezero Crater. Latest Development
According to Steve Jurczyk, Acting Administrator of NASA,1
“The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit On April 22, 2021, NASA confirmed that MOXIE successfully
of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, produced oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere.
and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies After a two-hour “warm-up” to about 800°C, MOXIE produced 5.4
the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us grams of oxygen. According to Jim Reuter, Associate Administrator,
prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.” NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, “This is a critical
The landing and exploration of Mars by the Perseverance rover first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars. MOXIE has
begins a new era of human space exploration. Important to human more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration
space exploration is the development and demonstration of In-Situ are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing
Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies for life support. A key humans on Mars.”6
ISRU technology is the production of oxygen from the Martian © The Electrochemical Society. DOI: 10.1149.2/2.F11212IF.
atmosphere via a process referred to as MOXIE.2 MOXIE loosely
stands for helping humans explore Mars by making OXygen
working In situ and is an Experiment. MOXIE is about the size of a About the Authors
car battery. It collects carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere
and electrochemically forms oxygen in a solid oxide electrolyzer.3 E. Jennings Taylor, Founder of Faraday
In addition to MOXIE, electrochemical and solid state science Technology, Inc.
and engineering will play an important role in numerous aspects Research Interest: Faraday Technology, Inc.
of space exploration. At the 235th ECS Meeting (Atlanta, GA) in is a small business focused on developing
the fall of 2019, the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology innovative electrochemical processes and
Subcommittee (ISTS) led a symposium on Electrochemistry in Space technologies based on pulse and pulse reverse
spanning three full days with 46 papers. The symposium included electrolytic principles.
experts from industry, academia, and NASA with sessions including Patent Background: Taylor leads Faraday’s
1) Electrochemistry for Life Support, 2) Power Sources for Space patent and commercialization strategy and
Applications, 3) Batteries for Space Applications, 4) Electrochemical (continued on next page)
The MOXIE functional block diagram.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
1
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8865/touchdown-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-safely-lands-on- NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image
red-planet/ using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the
2
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/ turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. This image
3
J. Hartvigsen, S. Elangovan, L. Frost “OxEon Energy Demonstration of Manned-Mission Scale was acquired on April 6, 2021, (Sol 45), at the local
ISRU Process Systems,” 49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, July 7-11 mean solar time of 11:44:54.
Boston, MA (2019). Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
4
G. Jackson (guest editor) “Electrochemistry in Space,” Electrochem. Soc. Interface 29 47 (2020).
5
https://issuu.com/ecs1902/docs/2021-orlando-cfp-03?fr=sZjRmODI0OTc1Njk
6
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/22/world/mars-rover-oxygen-moxie-scn/index.html
The Electrochemical Society Interface • Summer 2021 • www.electrochem.org 79
Taylor and Jackson
(continued from previous page)
has negotiated numerous patents via field of use licenses as well
as patent sales. He is admitted to practice before the United
States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in patents cases as a
patent agent (Registration No. 53,676). Member of the American
Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA).
Pubs & Patents: Numerous technical pubs and presentations,
inventor on 40 patents.
Work with ECS: Member for 42 years, ECS Fellow.
Website: http://www.faradaytechnology.com/
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3410-0267
Gregory S. Jackson, Professor of
Mechanical Engineering, Colorado
School of Mines
Education: PhD from Cornell University
Work Experience: University of Maryland –
Professor, Director of Energy Research Center
(now Energy Institute); Precision Combustion, Technicians in the cleanroom at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Inc. – led R&D on catalytic reactors for low- (Pasadena) carefully lower the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization
NOx combustion and aircraft engine ignition. Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the belly of the Perseverance rover.
Work with Students: Dr. Jackson manages The rover has been inverted so that the interior is more accessible. MOXIE
a research group active in energy storage and solid oxide will “breathe in” the CO2-rich atmosphere and “breathe out” a small
electrochemical systems. amount of oxygen, to demonstrate a technology that could be critical for
Work with ECS: ECS High-Temperature Energy, Materials, & Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Processes Division Chair (2017-2019)
Website: https://mechanical.mines.edu/project/jackson-greg/
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8928-2459
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