AI chemist helps scientists extract oxygen from Martian rock
The AI chemist has completed a complex process that would have taken a human chemist 2,000 years.
By Isobel Williams via SWNS
Humans could live on Mars after scientists extracted oxygen from Martian rock.
Mars colonization has long been depicted in science fiction but has never been realistic for long-term survival due to a lack of oxygen.
The main challenge in creating this oxygen was finding a way to do so using only materials already on Mars, rather than transporting them from Earth at a high cost.
Now researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have made this possible using Martian meteorites and an AI chemist.
Within two months, the AI chemist has completed a complex process that would have taken a human chemist 2,000 years.
It uses decomposing water to produce oxygen through electrochemical water oxidation driven by solar power with the help of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts.
Lead scientist Professor Yi Luo said: “The AI chemist innovatively synthesizes OER catalyst using Martian material based on interdisciplinary cooperation.
"Within two months, the AI chemist has completed the complex optimization of catalysts that would take 2,000 years for a human chemist."
This AI chemist achieved its results by analyzing the Martian ores' composition with lasers as its eyes, sending this data to its ‘brain’ for processing.
This allows the ‘brain’ to predict what combination of Martian ores would be needed for the process of bringing oxygen to Mars.
Using five types of Martian meteorites, the AI managed to create a working model that can steadily produce oxygen without any apparent degradation at Mars’ temperature of -37 degrees.
Professor Jun Jiang said: “This type of research is of wide interest and is under rapid development in organic/inorganic material synthesis and discovery.
"Only 15 hours of solar irradiation is needed to produce sufficient oxygen concentration required for human survival.
“In the future, humans can establish oxygen factory on Mars with the assistance of AI chemist.
“This breakthrough technology brings us one step closer to achieving our dream of living on Mars.”
The full research was published today in the Journal Nature Synthesis.
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