The Future of Mars After 3 Years

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Well, it's been 3 years since I have posted to this blog. Since that time, things have changed on Mars. Specially in regards to the activities of the Mars Spirit Rover which now has 1007 SOLS past the warranty date and the sister rover Opportunity has 987 SOLS past the warranty date.

SOLS = none earth days

According to this Nasa Site:
http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/mars/voyage/atmos.html

This is the atmospheric compositions of Mars compared to Earth.

Mars

Earth

Carbon dioxide

95%

Nitrogen

78%

Nitrogen

2.7%

Oxygen

21%

Argon

1.6%

Carbon dioxide, Argon, and other trace gases

1%

Oxygen

0.13%



Looks like the numbers are totally off wack and we really need to boost the Oxygen and Nitrogen levels plus drastically reduce the level of Carbon dioxide.

Extracting the Oxygen from the Carbon dioxide is not a good idea since it leaves you with Carbon monoxide which is poisonous to humans. Mother Nature has enzymes that takes Carbon dioxide and produces carbonate and Hydrogen gas.

This process seems like a great way to reduce the Carbon dioxide but seems like it does little in increasing the neeeded Oxygen or Nitrogen levels. Also, this process consumes very little of the Carbon dioxide. Therefore, an equal volume of enzymes would be required to match the existing volume of carbon dioxide to reduce the levels drastically in a short time frame. This would not be very practical.

I have considered transplanting organisms from Earth onto Mars. Like enzymes or algae. These could be transported in small pods and actually grown on Mars to increase the levels of Hydrogen and Oxygen production.

Electrolysis can be used to extract Hydogen and Oxygen from liquids we transport to Mars.

The Mir Space station has used canisters of Lithium perchlorate that when ignited produces the largest concentration of oxygen per given weight of solid materials. This chemical reaction is one of the best solutions thus far in producing Oxygen.

In all cases, the issue is the actual volume of elements created within a given amount of time.

1: The first process of using living organism is a very slow process. Easily centuries could pass before we can measure any significant level increases in the Martian atmosphere.

2: Transporting liquid materials involves quantities of materials that would be insufficient to be carried by one of our current rocket technologies. 1000's of rockets would be required to be launched to continuously supply the liquid fuel for the electrolysis process.

3: Though by weight using Lithium perchlorate would be a better proposition over any liquid based materials but this also is a material that requires continuous replenishing to be effective over time. Again, taking time into consideration, the process can take centuries to produce significant levels of Oxygen to change the Martian atmosphere.

With our existing knowledge, the most economical and efficient process to produce the necessary elements like Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen would be is to extract the elements from the Martian surface.

The current Mars missions with the rover Spirit and Opportunity have not discovered any significant areas with concentrations of Oxygen, Hydrogen or Nitrogen. These would be in the form of frozen gas or in the form of surface materials that could contain chlorates or salts. One reason being is that the current Mars missions by NASA do not indicate that this type of search is a priority. NASA Mars Mission The discovery of these elements indirectly can serve as a positive motivator for NASA to redirect funding for the purpose of terraforming Mars at some point.

If raw materials can be discovered on Mars that contain the basic elements like Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen, we could transport just the necessary equipment to process the raw materials 24/7.

My impressions currently is that this process is not as simple as taking Martian rock and extracting one of the elements directly. The Lithium perchlorate used by the Mir space station was originally manufactured from Sodium perchlorate and Lithium chloride. Therefore a complex level of processes would be required to extract the essential needed elements in the end.

Maybe if we can manufacture a transport ship the size of 2 football fields then we could at least transport some of the raw materials and processing equipment necessary to produce the raw elements in the end. For now, we will have to wait and see how the existing and future Mars missions develop.

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