Laboratory Characterization of Mars In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) using the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) FlatSat Testbed

Abstract

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is a payload onboard NASA’s Perseverance Rover demonstrating the production of oxygen through solid oxide electrolysis of carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere. MOXIE has successfully generated oxygen on Mars 14 times since landing in February 2021 and will continue to demonstrate oxygen production during night and day throughout all Martian seasons.

As opportunities to run MOXIE on Mars are limited due to mission constraints such as energy usage and a fixed instrument configuration, the MOXIE team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Haystack Observatory, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed the MOXIE FlatSat as a ground-based operational testbed to further characterize the MOXIE system, evaluate and validate planned MOXIE operations on Mars, and demonstrate potential operating modes and configurations for a next-generation Mars in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) system.

The research presented in this thesis involves a series of experiments conducted on the FlatSat testbed to inform design and operation of a next-generation Martian ISRU system. Specifically, this thesis discusses the capabilities of the FlatSat system, and how experiments analyzing the FlatSat compressor and FlatSat operations at low pressures inform optimal operating conditions for a future full-scale Martian ISRU system that minimize energy usage and maximize oxygen production. In addition, qualitative and quantitative differences between the FlatSat and MOXIE Flight Model are discussed to examine the extensibility of FlatSat data to MOXIE's operations on Mars.