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Nasa's next Martian rover, will attempt to make oxygen on the surface of the red planet when it lands there in 2021, according to a BBC report. 

The rover will carry seven scientific projects, including a device for turning the CO2 into oxygen. Other projects will be aimed at paving the way for future manned missions. 

The rover will also be equipped with two cameras and an experimental weather station. 

"This is a really exciting day for us," said astronaut and Nasa administrator John Grunsfeld, announcing the Mars 2020 scientific payload in Washington DC, according to BBC.

The $1.9bn vehicle will be modeled based on Curiosity, the rover that successfully touched down on the red planet in August 2012. 

Presently, other Nasa spacecraft can already produce oxygen from CO2, but the new 'MOXIE" device will test this capability in the Martian atmosphere for the first time. 

"It is very much about the old Star Trek 'boldly going', the real focus of this payload is exploration rather than science,"  Prof Tom Pike from Imperial College, London, the co-investigator of the "MOXIE" instrument told BBC News.

"There are not very many places that humans can go after the Moon. I would say it's practically a list of one and Mars is it!"