Is it chemically possible to separate silicon dioxide (quartz) into its components of silicon and oxygen? I'm working on a Mars mission plan and getting oxygen from the rocks there sounds like a really appealing idea.

A good strong acid and lots of heat?

Welcome to the forums

(shouldn't be saying this as I'm new myself, but anyway)

 

Silicon dioxide is pretty inert and a hard chemical to split... you could react chlorine gas with it to liberate the oxygen, but you'd end up with liquid silicon tetrachloride (which explodes in water), and you'd have to find some way to deal with that. However, there are a lot of different oxides on Mars from which the oxides might be more easily removed. Maybe one of them would be the answer to your problem.