The successful establishment of oxygen production on Mars is the prerequisite for manned flights to the Red Planet. So far, they are not possible because the rocket would need more fuel for the return flight than it can transport. If, on the other hand, oxygen could be extracted from the Martian atmosphere, the rocket on Earth would only have to be refuelled with part of the fuel for the return flight. Oxygen production on Mars would also allow astronauts to stay on the planet.
The smartGAS sensors monitor the process inside the so-called MOXIE module (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment), in which oxygen atoms are split off from the CO2 compounds in the Martian atmosphere. If the experiments continue to be successful, a module about a hundred times larger will be used to produce oxygen permanently on Mars.