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Old August 27th 18, 08:46 PM posted to sci.space.science
Thomas Koenig
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Posts: 47
Default Make vs. buy for a Martian colony

Make vs. buy (where "buy" has a likely lead time of anywhere
between six months and more than two years) decisions are going
to be hard for any Martian colony that has not developed a full
industrial base comparable with what we have today on Earth.

Even something simple, like an oil-resistant nitrile rubber O-ring
gasket, would require a long chain of manufacturing, starting out
with Butadiene (which requires something like a steam cracker),
Propene and Ammonia for the monomers, plus emulsifiers for the
emulsion reaction and large amounts of water which would end
up polluted. Also, rubber manufacturing is quite a specialized
process.

This would only give you the base polymer. In any useful rubber
compound, you are likely to find 20 to 30 different chemicals, from
fillers (carbon black, silica, plasticizers), a rubber protection
system (UV, oxygen, radiation, Ozone, fatigue, ... protection),
processing aids (lubricants, tackifiers, dispersion agents,
peptizers, oil), vulcanizing agents such as sulfur or peroxides,
activators, accelerators, scorch retarders), and probably others
I have forgotten. Each of these has their own synthesis route
and supply chain.

And you will also need specialized catalysts for making many
of the materials that will have to go into that simple gasket...

All of this for a part that will cost a few cents here and now.

So, it is likely that drastic simplification will be needed
to build up an industry on Mars, both in material selection
(don't try to use the best materials available on Earth
for that spacesuit) and in processes (accept inefficiency
that would bankrupt any company on Earth today).

And don't count on a Mars colony becoming independent from
Earth supplies any time soon.

What work has been done in what a Martian colony would be able
to produce for itself, work that addresses the complexity that
I have only given a very small part of?