A team of Chinese scientists has developed a robotic artificial intelligence (AI) chemist capable of generating oxygen from water on Mars using meteorites found on the Red Planet. The shortage of oxygen, crucial for prolonged survival, has been a significant challenge for potential human migration to Mars. With the identification of water activity on Mars, there is hope for addressing this issue.
Researchers have explored the concept of breaking down water to generate oxygen through electrochemical water oxidation driven by solar power, aided by oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. The challenge lies in finding a method to synthesize these catalysts on Mars using local materials, eliminating the need for transport from Earth, which is a costly endeavor.
To address this, a team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a robotic AI chemist capable of automatically synthesizing and optimizing OER catalysts from Martian meteorites.
Operating under unmanned conditions, the AI chemist produced an exceptional catalyst using five types of Martian meteorites. The catalyst demonstrated steady operation for over 550,000 seconds at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and an overpotential of 445.1 mV.
In a further test at -37 degrees Celsius, the temperature on Mars, the catalyst consistently produced oxygen without any apparent degradation.
Remarkably, the AI chemist completed the intricate optimization of catalysts within two months, a task that would take a human chemist 2,000 years.
“In the future, humans can establish an oxygen factory on Mars with the assistance of an AI chemist,” said Jiang. Only 15 hours of solar irradiation is needed to produce the required oxygen concentration for human survival.
“This breakthrough technology brings us one step closer to achieving our dream of living on Mars,” he said.
