Mars Primer: Where to get Information

engineercampus (64)in #engineering • 8 years ago

To develop targeted product ideas, one has to know the enviroment to see its problems.

Humans exploring the Noctis Labyrinthus, located in the Valles Marineris. Painting by Pat Rawlings, courtesy NASA.

Here presented are various sources of openly available information outside of Wikipedia. In further articles, these information will be processed to present problem cases that needs to be solved.

The Case for Colonizing Mars by Robert Zubrin

Very detailed description about the reasons and obstacles of colonizing Mars.

Available resources (metal, rare metals, deuterium, no helium-3, carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen gas, and lots of water ice and permafrost).
Habitats/greenhouses (Inflatebale domes of 50 to 100m diameter possible, solar flares are weakened by athmosphere, sandstorms are weak because of the low air pressure).
Energy supply (Solar and wind only short term, nuklear main energy with added geotermal).
Needed imports (hightech, workforce).
Possible exports (deuterium, rare metals, invention in energy production, automation and robotics, biotechnology, and other areas).
Other income sources for settlers (Access to space mining in asteroid belt).
Social outlook (Settlers will need to be hard working people).

GTA welding and GHTA welding might be applicable even in the Mars atmosphere.

Conventional gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding and gas hollow tungsten arc (GHTA) welding is important for metal construction.
It was shown that GTA welding and GHTA welding might be applicable even in the Mars atmosphere.

Evidences for copper bearing minerals in Shalbatana valley, Mars

There is an unambiguous detection of a copper phase in Shalbatana paleolake sediments.
There is no way to exclude or to prove the presence of other common copper minerals like malachite and/or azurite, or association with other phases (e.g. allophane).

Potential Mineral Resources On Mars: Ore Processes And Mechanisms.

From the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2015).
Comparison of the formation of mineral depositions on Earth to possible ones on Mars.
Focus on impact craters.

Perspectives on the Utilization of Martian Iron and Carbon Dioxide by J. Marvin Herndon

Chapter 20 of the book "Mars: Prospective Energy and Material Resources".
Book accessible on Google books.
Iron from asteroid impacts.
Chemical composition of iron on Mars.
Smelting of Iron on Mars, main problem being the energy source since the furnaces can't be fired with coal (because there is neither coal nor enough oxigen on Mars).
Sintering of Iron on Mars as alternative to smelting (heating pressed metal poweder).
Other options, possiblities and effectivity.