Lunchbox-sized instrument generates oxygen on Mars

Nasa Perseverance rover on Mars (Nasa/JPL-Caltech)

An instrument the size of a lunchbox has been successfully generating breathable oxygen on Mars, doing the work of a small tree.

Since February last year the Mars oxygen in-situ resource utilisation experiment, or Moxie, has been successfully making oxygen from the red planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.