The Generation of O2 and CO by CO2 Glow Discharge for In-Situ Martian Atmospheric Utilization.

Mars has nearly ideal conditions for CO2 dissociation by glow discharge plasmas. The directly generation of O2 and CO on Mars was considered to be feasible and practical for in situ resource utilization of Martian atmosphere to get respirable O2 and fuel. In this paper, we conduct several experiments under simulated Martian conditions to investigate the process and how the key parameters effect the generation of O2 and CO in CO2 glow discharge reactions. The yields of new products (i.e., O2 and CO) under various gas discharge work parameters (i.e., discharge power, frequency, voltage, gap between the discharge plane electrodes and gas pressure) were systematically investigated. The reaction mechanism and reaction path of CO2 glow discharge has been discussed. In our study the max yield of O2 by CO2 discharge dissociation was got about 21.8 g/h at 168 W which is very close to that of NASA MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) at the same power. Our results showed the great potentiality of glow discharge for the practicable technology of O2 and CO generation for in-situ resource utilization on Mars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]