FB36
Any tech that can be used to recycle air (by filtering/converting CO2 back to O2) would be also extremely useful for a moon base; not just a Mars base!
(& even for ISS in orbit currently!)

Otherwise, tons of water needs to be carried to space, periodically, which is extremely expensive!
(Tech for recycling water is already exists & used by NASA! So main need/use of water is to make O2!)

Here is another similar great tech:

https://newatlas.com/carbon-capture-co2-into-coal/58637
paul314
At last, a way to take advantage that 90-odd percent of the mass of a rocket is fuel.
Heckler
Will Moxie have to isolate atmospheric CH4 as part of its fuel making process, or will the left over carbon be burnt, or is the atmosphere thick enough that only the O2 needs to be stored for fuel, or something else?
Michael Garand
Heckler: Mars already has frozen hydrogen in the form of frozen ice, and possibly lakes of liquid water under the surface. Hydrogen would be used as the fuel but we need liquid oxygen for oxidation in order to burn said hydrogen.
Gizreader
The air we breathe on earth is 78% nitrogen. Where on Mars are they going to get that from? Breathing pure oxygen is deadly.
bahbah
Instead of this high temp method, they should focus more on plants and algae to convert the CO2 to O2. The process can be optimised with GMO tweaking. There is plenty of water in some underground parts in Mars. The Dutch have automated the process. By products are food, which store well at ambient temps there of -100 C or so. When eventually a crew is sent they will have food and oxygen.
INVENTZILLA
The oxygen generator is the size of a small toaster. They could put a different instrument on it to scan the surface or process samples of soil or something. An oxygen maker takes up space and it's STUPID. We know the exact composition of the Martian atmosphere and we know exactly how to split CO2 and make 02. The only different factor is the lower gravity. It's a waste of weight and space on the rover.
Catweazle
Gizreader says: "Breathing pure oxygen is deadly."

And yet:
"Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells : a prospective trial"
https://www.aging-us.com/article/202188/text
Rick Chandler
What happens to the carbon that's produced? Can the waste heat be reused at some point to power something else?
Robert Britton
I have made hydrogen/oxygen generating devices in my garage at very low cost using water. It would produce enough fuel to supplement fuel to a full size pickup truck. Chemical electrolysis to me seems like a much less complicated and inexpensive way to produce oxygen.