Plasma reactors could create oxygen on Mars
Yet, by firing an electron beam into the reaction chamber, they were able to convert about 30% of the air into oxygen. They estimate that the device could create about 14 grams of oxygen per hour: enough to support 28 minutes of breathing, the team reports today in theJournal of Applied Physics.
Guerra’s team still needs to solve some practical problems, Hecht notes.
Yes, I can see how only being able to produce 28 minutes of breathing oxygen every hour would be a practical problem. On the bright side, it wouldn’t be a problem for long.
(Yes, I know it’s only a concept and not yet built or scaled to real-world size, but the author set that up, so…)