Pecohub Chinese space scientists are working out how future astronauts on Mars could make their own fuel out of thin air, a sign that Beijing is serious about one day sending people to the red planet.
A team at the state-funded Deep Space Exploration Laboratory in Hefei has developed a catalyst that turns carbon dioxide – which makes up more than 95 per cent of the Martian atmosphere – into a liquid fuel called methanol.
“Methanol can serve as fuel to generate electricity, provide heating and power Mars rovers, and it can also be used as a chemical building block for making antifreeze, building materials and other products,” space resources scientist Zhang Zhe and his colleagues wrote in a paper published online in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration.
Mars is seen as a key destination for future crewed landings and long-term stays, the researchers wrote. The planet may hold usable air, water ice and minerals, and making fuel and basic chemicals there would mean shipping far less from Earth, cutting costs and making a future base more independent, they added.
The catalyst pairs copper with sodium on a sponge-like crystal and helps carbon dioxide react with hydrogen, which could be made from Martian ice, to form methanol. In lab tests on Earth, it produced 11 times more methanol than copper alone and cut unwanted by-products.
“This work also shows that producing methanol on site from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere is technically feasible to a certain extent,” the team wrote.
Nasa has long said it wants to send astronauts to Mars, though without a set date. The agency’s toaster-sized Moxie device, mounted on the Perseverance rover, successfully made oxygen from Martian air between 2021 and 2023.
While Nasa and SpaceX have mainly looked at turning Martian carbon dioxide into methane to power rockets home, the Chinese team chose methanol instead. Methane has to be kept extremely cold, while methanol stays liquid at room temperature, making it easier to store and more versatile.
In the team’s tests, sodium did better than potassium and caesium, helping the catalyst grab carbon dioxide and hold it close to the copper. Every kilogram of the catalyst made about 245 grams of methanol an hour, and it kept working steadily throughout a 12-hour test.
Mars, the planet most like Earth, has long been a prime target for space powers hoping to one day send humans there. With Tianwen-1’s touchdown in 2021, China became the only nation besides the US ever to successfully land an uncrewed spacecraft on Mars.
