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Harvesting Mars
Ashlie Benjamin Hocking wrote: (Ron Baalke) writes: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...riticalco2.htm Harvesting Mars NASA Science News August 20, 2003 A NASA-supported scientist is learning how to use carbon dioxide--the main gas in Mars' atmosphere--to harvest rocket fuel and water from the red planet. August 20, 2003: When astronauts first go to Mars, it'll be difficult for them to bring everything they need to survive. Even the first tentative explorations could last as long as two years--but spaceships can only carry a limited amount. "We might have to do what explorers have done for ages: live off the land," says chemical engineer Ken Debelak of Vanderbilt University. Explorers on Earth could usually count on finding what they needed. The animals might be strange, but they'd be there, and they'd be edible. Mars is barren. But the challenge is the same. Astronauts will want to pull what they need from the planet itself. And although that goal seems improbable, Debelak believes it can be achieved. He's working on a NASA project to make it happen. The key, he says, lies in the Martian atmosphere. ... This sounds a lot like what Zubrin wrote in "The Case for Mars" several years back. Besides being labeled as being from a NASA-supported scientist, how is this different? (Although I believe Zubrin did at least part of his work with support from NASA as well.) IIRC correctly Zubrin's plan was to get CO and O2 from the atmosphere for fuel and water. Doing a few other things like bringing along hydrogen to get CH4. Debelak also wants to use super pressurized CO2 as a solvent. Dissolve rocks to get magnesium & other stuff. It is encouraging to see Zubrin's philosophy of using in situ resources is becoming widely accepted. Hop http://clowder.net/hop/index.html |
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