Possibly—but the evidence so far is an early proof of concept, not a working spacecraft oxygen system. A 2025 study explored using magnets to help separate the oxygen and hydrogen bubbles created when water is split in microgravity. In brief drop-tower tests, the devices reached up to 240% higher current density than versions without a magnet, according to Chemistry World’s account of the study. That result does not mean 240% more breathable oxygen was produced for astronauts.
How magnets could help an electrolyser in microgravity
Water electrolysis uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. On Earth, gravity helps bubbles rise away from the electrodes. In microgravity, bubbles do not rise in the same way and can cling to electrode surfaces, complicating gas removal and collection.
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The 2025 work investigated magnetic effects as a way to move bubbles without relying on pumps or centrifuges. As aerospace engineer and study team member Álvaro Romero-Calvo told Chemistry World: “What we’re ultimately trying to do is to separate gas bubbles – oxygen and hydrogen – from the water or the electrolyte, without moving parts or centrifuges or pumps or anything like that,”
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- Proton-exchange-membrane electrolyser: The team used diamagnetic forces to help guide gas bubbles toward collection regions.
- Magnetohydrodynamic drive cell: The device generated vortical motion in the gas-liquid mixture. The reported magnetic effects helped detach bubbles from the electrode and move them through the liquid.
The proposed advantage is passive bubble management: magnets and magnetic-field effects may help with separation without adding moving mechanical parts. That could matter in a spacecraft system, where handling gas-liquid mixtures in microgravity is difficult.
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What the experiment showed—and what the 240% figure means
According to Julia Robinson’s 22 August 2025 Chemistry World report on Ö. Akay and colleagues’ paper in Nature Chemistry, the team tested the devices in a Bremen drop tower. The free-fall tests provided 9.3 seconds of total microgravity time. In those brief tests, the report says, magnets improved current density by up to 240% compared with devices without a magnet.
Current density measures electrical current per electrode area. It is a performance measure for the tested electrolyser, not a direct measure of how much oxygen a crew could breathe. The “up to” result comes from short prototype tests; it should not be read as a demonstrated increase in mission-scale oxygen output.
Chemistry World also reports a current density around 150 mA/cm² for the devices. Electrochemist Mark Symes, quoted by the publication, contrasted that figure with at least 1 A/cm² for a conventional terrestrial electrolyser. That is Symes’s comparison as relayed in the report, not a separate head-to-head result established by the microgravity experiment.
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Why this is not yet a crew oxygen system
A short drop-tower test can show that magnetic effects may help move bubbles; it cannot establish how a complete system would perform through a long spaceflight. The prototypes have not demonstrated a validated supply of breathing oxygen for a crew, safe long-duration separation and handling of oxygen and hydrogen, or operation on Mars.
The team was reported to be pursuing longer microgravity tests, potentially on a suborbital rocket or in orbit, while working on scale-up. Symes also raised unresolved engineering questions about oxygen purity and current density. These are important system-level requirements: improving bubble movement in a prototype does not by itself establish gas purity, reliable operation, or production at the rate a mission would need.
Romero-Calvo described the broader challenge to Chemistry World: “In the case of a Mars transit mission, the reliability of the oxygen production system … is still not high enough to support a long-term mission,”
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How this differs from NASA’s MOXIE experiment on Mars
The magnet-assisted devices split water and are most directly relevant to electrolysis and gas separation in microgravity, such as during a journey. NASA’s MOXIE used a different feedstock and operated on the Martian surface: it processed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make oxygen aboard the Perseverance rover.
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| Comparison | Magnet-assisted water electrolysis | NASA’s MOXIE |
|---|---|---|
| Feedstock and setting | Water; the proposed application is microgravity, including spacecraft transit. | Carbon dioxide from Mars’s atmosphere; tested on the Martian surface aboard Perseverance. |
| Problem addressed | Helping gas bubbles detach from electrodes and move toward collection points in microgravity. | Producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. |
| Evidence reported | Prototype drop-tower tests with 9.3 seconds of total free-fall microgravity time; up to 240% higher current density than devices without a magnet, as reported by Chemistry World. | NASA reports 16 oxygen-production runs and 122 grams of oxygen overall; the peak rate was 12 grams per hour at 98% purity or better. |
| Remaining system needs | Longer microgravity testing, scale-up, and resolution of oxygen-purity and performance questions. | NASA says a future full-scale oxygen system would need oxygen liquefaction and storage and a generator about 100 times larger than the test model. |
NASA’s MOXIE instrument reference lists the test unit at 300 watts, 17.1 kg Earth mass, and 23.9 × 23.9 × 30.9 cm. These specifications describe MOXIE, not the magnet-assisted prototypes.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said after MOXIE’s Mars demonstration: “MOXIE’s impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere – oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts,”
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What the result could mean for a Mars mission
The study points to a possible way to simplify one part of water electrolysis in microgravity: separating gas bubbles without adding pumps or centrifuges. That makes it relevant to future spacecraft life-support research, but the reported result is still about prototype performance in very short tests. It is not evidence that magnets have already solved oxygen production for a Mars journey.
It is also separate from the problem MOXIE addressed. MOXIE demonstrated oxygen production from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide at the surface; the magnetic study examined splitting water and managing the resulting bubbles in microgravity. A future mission may need different systems for transit and for operating on Mars.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Julia Robinson, Chemistry World, “Magnets could be simple way to enhance oxygen generation on a mission to Mars,” 22 August 2025; reports on Ö. Akay et al., Nature Chemistry (2025), DOI 10.1038/s41557-025-01890-0.
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “NASA’s Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission,” 6 September 2023, updated 22 June 2026.
- NASA Science, “Perseverance Science Instruments,” MOXIE entry and specifications, accessed 2026.
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