backbone, grit, guts, moxie, sand, gumption (noun)

fortitude and determination

"he didn't have the guts to try it"

moxie (Noun)

backbone, determination and fortitude

moxie (Noun)

initiative or skill

Moxie

Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was an early example of mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today. Moxie's flavor is unique, as it is not as sweet as most modern soft drinks and is described by some as "bitter." Moxie is flavored with gentian root extract, an extremely bitter substance which was reputed to possess medicinal properties. Moxie is closely associated with the state of Maine and was designated the official soft drink of Maine on May 10, 2005. Its creator, Dr. Augustin Thompson, was born in Union, Maine, but Moxie was invented and first produced in Lowell, Massachusetts.

moxie

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is a technology demonstration on the NASA Mars 2020 rover Perseverance investigating the production of oxygen on Mars. On April 20, 2021, MOXIE produced oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere by using solid oxide electrolysis. This was the first experimental extraction of a natural resource from another planet for human use. The technology may be scaled up for use in a human mission to the planet to provide breathable oxygen, oxidizer, and propellant; water may also be produced by combining the produced oxygen with hydrogen.The experiment was a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Haystack Observatory, the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other institutions.