Could people breathe the air on Mars?

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Let’s suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on the planet Mars. What would you need to survive?

For starters, here’s a short list: Water, food, shelter – and oxygen.

Oxygen is in the air we breathe here on Earth. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us.

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But oxygen is not the only gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen – about 78%.

Now you might be wondering: If there’s more nitrogen in the air, why do we breathe oxygen?

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Here’s how it works: Technically, when you breathe in, you take in everything that’s in the atmosphere. But your body uses only the oxygen; you get rid of the rest when you exhale.