As you might be aware, humans need oxygen to live. Earth has a good supply of it, but other planets do not. Thanks to a recent experiment by NASA, however, Mars has a bit more oxygen than it previously did.

“MOXIE isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world,” Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. She called it the first technology of its kind to help future missions “live off the land” of another planet.

The instrument works through electrolysis, which uses extreme heat to separate oxygen atoms from molecules of carbon dioxide, which accounts for about 95% of the atmosphere on Mars.

The moon landings began and ended well before I was born, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to witness a Mars landing in my lifetime.