Chinese research team has made breakthroughs in intelligent oxygen production technology on Mars. Human migration to Mars is no longer a dream!

On the 14th, the team of Professors Luo Yi, Jiang Jun, and Shang Weiwei from the University of Science and Technology of China cooperated with Researcher Zhang Zhe from the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory and others, using the "Xiao Lai" system of the University of Science and Technology of China's machine chemist, efficiently integrating artificial intelligence and automated machine experiments, and using Martian meteorites to prepare practical oxygen-producing electrocatalysts, completing the complex optimization work that would have taken two thousand years to complete in two months. On the 14th, the results were published in the international journal Nature Synthesis and were selected by the editor as a hot paper of the issue for special recommendation.

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Migrating to Mars is a human dream, but the first thing to overcome is the lack of oxygen on Mars. The possibility of water resources on Mars provides an opportunity to produce oxygen using solar-driven electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reactions. Since humans cannot survive for a long time in the oxygen-free Martian environment, creating catalysts using local materials on Mars has become an insurmountable barrier.

It is reported that "Xiaolai" is able to perform high-throughput experimental tasks through its precise automated operation capabilities. At the same time, its "computational brain" simultaneously conducts quantum chemical simulations, and generates a machine learning model with predictive capabilities by integrating theoretical big data and experimental small data. Finally, it calls the Bayesian optimization algorithm to predict and machine-verify the global optimal catalyst formula.

This research paradigm that blends theory and practice greatly accelerates the process of new material discovery and can quickly identify the best combinations from millions of possible formulas.

This research result successfully demonstrated the intelligent whole process of creating chemicals according to local conditions in extraterrestrial galaxies, provided new technical means for future exploration of extraterrestrial civilizations, and established a unique plan for my country to achieve in-situ comprehensive utilization of interstellar resources in future lunar and Mars space stations.

International reviewers commented: "This paper reports an exciting method for synthesizing OER catalysts on Mars through a 'machine chemist' system" and "serves as a typical example of the combination of artificial intelligence and automation to design and manufacture complex materials under challenging environments."

Planning and production

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Editor: Wang Mengru