Mars

Elvira Palomo reports for EFE on new findings from a team of MIT researchers that indicates the Mars One colonization plans are flawed. "Our current technological level does not make such a mission possible," explains graduate student Sydney Do. 

Boston Magazine reporter Steve Annear writes about how MIT engineers have published a new study showing that the Mars One colonization plans are not feasible without the development of additional technology. 

New Scientist reporter Paul Marks examines new findings from a team of MIT researchers who have assessed the Mars One colonization plans. The researchers found that “if crop growth provides 100 per cent of the settlement's food, the system will produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat," says graduate student Sydney Do.

The Guardian reports on the new study from a team of MIT engineers examining the Mars One colonization plans. The team found that plans to grow crops in the settlers’ habitat would produce unsafe levels of oxygen, creating a fire risk. 

Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about how MIT engineers have analyzed the feasibility of the Mars One colonization plans. "The claim they make is that no new technology is required for their mission," says graduate student Syndey Do. "Our numbers show that is not feasible."

Rafi Letzter of Popular Science writes that a team of MIT researchers has published a study debunking Mars One’s plan to establish the first human colony on Mars by 2025. The team found that “without dramatic improvements in equipment life, the space colonists, who would have no way to return to Earth, could starve to death,” writes Letzter. 

An MIT study indicates that plans for settling on Mars could put colonists in danger of starvation, reports Thor Benson for UPI. "Our habitation simulations revealed that crop growth, if large enough to provide 100% of the settlement's food, will produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat,” the researchers explain. 

Huffington Post reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that a team of MIT scientists has found that the Mars One colonization plans are flawed. The researchers found that Mars colonists are unlikely to survive as the production of crops will over saturate the living environment with oxygen, Tamblyn writes. 

Sharon Guadin at Computerworld writes about the next steps for the MOXIE team. The biggest challenge, MIT's Michael Hecht tells her, "is to have the insight, the capability and the determination to give the system a chance to fail in testing, being willing to change things and being creative in fixing it when it does fail."

“MOXIE itself will be a reverse fuel cell, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, converting CO2 into oxygen and carbon monoxide via solid oxide electrolysis,” writes Andy Extance in a piece for Scientific American. MOXIE is slated to be deployed on NASA’s next Martian rover.

Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe reports that a device designed by MIT researchers to demonstrate that it is possible to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere will be included on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. “When humans go to Mars, we’d like to get them there, but we’d also like to get them home,” explains Dr. Michael Hecht. 

Sky News reports that a device developed by Dr. Michael Hecht of MIT to turn carbon dioxide on Mars into breathable oxygen will be included on the rover NASA plans to send to Mars in 2020. The device,  “aims to see if Martian air could be converted for astronauts to breathe,” Sky News reports. 

“Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Mars Oxygen ISRU (in situ research utilization) Experiment (MOXIE) aims to see if Martian air could be converted for astronauts to breathe,” the AFP reports. MOXIE will be one of the systems aboard a robotic vehicle slated to go to Mars in 2020. 

The Associated Press reports that MOXIE, an MIT device designed to turn carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into oxygen, will be included on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. MOXIE will “make about three-quarters of an ounce of oxygen an hour," Dr. Michael Hecht explains.