Oxygen generator on Mars

American scientists are perfecting the technology to turn CO2 into oxygen on Mars in 2020.

>> Settling on Mars: Make water and oxygen

Self-propelled vehicles contain oxygen generators that serve astronauts on Mars.(Graphics: NASA)

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a tool called Moxie. This new tool will generate oxygen from CO2 and put it on the red planet on a new self-propelled vehicle of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) in 2020.

"This will be the first time we really produce oxygen on Mars," said Dr. Jeffery Hoffman, a former astronaut and machine builder.

Mars's atmosphere is 96% CO2 while oxygen is less than 0.2%. The team hopes to convert CO2 into 99.6% pure oxygen. To do so, it is necessary to extract CO2 from the surrounding environment and then isolate the oxygen molecules, then combine them to create O2, the air can breathe.

This technology not only plays an important role - helping to produce breathing air in cosmopolitan travel, but also helping to save fuel on a round trip from Mars to Earth.

NASA is expected to send an empty missile with Moxie to Mars, before taking people up, Business Insider said. Oxygen generator will take about a year and a half to pump into the rocket enough liquid oxygen. After the astronauts landed on the surface of Mars, they would have a rocket filled with fuel and ready to take them back to Earth.