Why is Mars red?

Iron and Titanium.

Martian dust is reddish mostly due to the spectral properties of nanophase ferric oxides (npOx) that tend to dominate in the visible spectrum. The specific npOx minerals have not been fully constrained, but nanocrystalline red hematite (α-Fe2O3) may be the volumetrically dominant one, at least at the less than 100 µm sampling depth of infrared remote sensors such as the Mars Express OMEGA instrument. The rest of the iron in the dust, perhaps as much as 50% of the mass, may be in titanium enriched magnetite (Fe3O4). Magnetite is usually black in color with a black streak and does not contribute to the reddish hue of dust.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_surface_color

So this planet is a giant mine where we can easily find Iron and Titanium waiting on the surface to be mined.

Large areas of Mars contain troughs, called fossa, which are classified as grabens by geologists. They stretch thousands of miles out from volcanoes. It is believed that dikes helped with the formation of grabens. Many, maybe most, of the grabens had dikes under them. One would expect dikes and other igneous intrusions on Mars because geologists believe that the amount of liquid rock that moved under the ground is more than what we see on the top in the form of volcanoes and lava flows.

On Earth, vast volcanic landscapes are called large igneous provinces (LIPs); such places are sources of nickel, copper, titanium, iron, platinum, palladium, and chromium. Mars's Tharsis region, which contains a group of giant volcanoes, is considered to be an LIP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_resources_on_Mars

So there is also Chromium - for stainless steel - and Copper.

Water on Mars.

Almost all water on Mars today exists as ice, though it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere, and occasionally as low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil. The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap. Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate conditions. More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars, enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters (115 ft). Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface.

Source: Water on Mars

An Iron / Oxygen / Rocket-Fuel Factory.

The extraction of Iron from ore is well-known:

At 500 °C

3Fe2O3 +CO → 2Fe3O4 + CO2

Fe2O3 +CO → 2FeO + CO2

At 850 °C

Fe3O4 +CO → 3FeO + CO2

At 1000 °C

FeO +CO → Fe + CO2

Source: The Extraction of Iron 

We know that the atmosphere of Mars is CO2 and fortunately we know a way to turn it to CO.

A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has developed a highly selective catalyst capable of electrochemically converting carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — to carbon monoxide with 92 percent efficiency. The carbon monoxide then can be used to develop useful chemicals.

The researchers found that when they used a nano-porous silver electrocatalyst, it was 3,000 times more active than polycrystalline silver, a catalyst commonly used in converting carbon dioxide to useful chemicals. Silver is considered a promising material for a carbon dioxide reduction catalyst because it offers high selectivity — approximately 81 percent — and because it costs much less than other precious metal catalysts. Additionally, because it is inorganic, silver remains more stable under harsh catalytic environments.

Source: https://www.materialstoday.com/surface-science/news/new-catalyst-to-convert-co2-to-co/

A new catalyst made from copper and tin oxides uses electric current from a solar cell to split water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), creating energy-rich carbon monoxide (CO) that can be further refined into liquid fuels.

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/cheap-catalysts-turn-sunlight-and-carbon-dioxide-fuel

That way we split CO2 into CO and O2 and can get CO and O2 from different outlets. We have almost mimicked photosynthesis.

Reducing carbon monoxide to alcohols electrochemically using just water as the hydrogen source is a key goal for fuel scientists. This reaction is catalyzed by copper, so in principle, all you need is a copper electrode. In practice, however, the majority of the hydrogen from the water is evolved as a gas, rather than reducing the carbon monoxide.

Source: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/nanocrystalline-copper-turns-co-into-fuel/7262.article

The researchers built a fuel cell, including a cathode made of the new copper nanocrystals, and suspended it in CO-saturated water; a small voltage applied across the fuel cell generates the resulting ethanol products. The Faraday efficiency using the oxide-derived material was 57 percent, meaning more than half of the current used went toward producing ethanol and acetate. A few years is probably enough to turn this basic work into prototype devices, outside of the lab, that can produce meaningful amounts of fuel.

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/fuel-cells/stanford-carbon-monoxide-ethanol

I believe that soon the correct catalyst and configuration will be discovered and we will be able to convert CO to ethanol.

2CO + 3H2O → C2H5OH + 2O2

Then from ethanol, we can make any organic material through chemical reactions, even carbon - by incomplete combustion - so that we can make steel.

C2H5OH + O2 → 2C + 3H2O

According to some studies, it is also possible to convert ethanol to carbon through catalyzed chemical reactions. Carbon microspheres (CMSs) with a diameter range of 2–3 μm were prepared by the iodine-catalyzed carbonization of ethanol at low temperatures by solvothermal synthesis. The reaction time, concentrations of reactants, temperatures, different alcohols as carbon precursors and reaction environments were systematically altered to determine the optimal synthesis conditions.

Source: ScienceDirect - Carbon microspheres from ethanol at low-temperature

Ethanol is a rocket fuel, so we 'll be able to power our spaceships on Mars using fuel made by the... atmosphere of the planet. There was the well-known Redstone Rocket and now there is RS88 that use Ethanol and Liquid Oxygen.

Source: Ethanol

The RS-88 is a liquid-fueled rocket engine burning ethanol as fuel, and using liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer. It was designed and built by Rocketdyne, originally for the NASA Bantam System Technology program (1997). In 2003, it was designated by Lockheed for their Pad Abort Demonstration (PAD) vehicle. NASA tested the RS-88 in a series of 14 hot-fire tests, resulting in 55 seconds of successful engine operation in November and December 2003. The RS-88 engine proved to be capable of 50,000 lbf (220 kN) of thrust at sea level. The RS-88 engine has been selected for usage as the CST-100 Launch Escape System and is being tested by Boeing (2011).

Source: RS-88

Now we have completely mimicked photosynthesis:

8 CO2, 3H2O, 2Fe2O3 → 6CO2, 4Fe, 3O2, (C2H5OH, 3O2) → Iron, Oxygen, Rocket Fuel.

But of course the reactions are not perfect and there are losses.

A serious problem is the possibility of poisoning of produced oxygen with CO. For the removal of CO quantities from O2 many filters have been devised and we provide an example here that is a catalyzed oxidizing of CO to CO2. Then the CO2 can be removed by CaO converting it to CaCO3 and CaCO3 can then be recycled back to CaO by the well-known reaction.

2 CaCO3 + 5 C → 2 CaC2 + 3 CO2
2 CaC2 + 2 H2O → 2 CaO + 2 C2H2
2 C2H2 + 5 O2 → 4 CO2 + 2 H2O

The O2 required for the combustion of produced C2H2 is much less than the produced O2 because there will be only a very small quantity of CO in the produced O2 to be cleansed.

Carbon monoxide air filter

Abstract
A reaction chamber is filled with a fine fibrous material capable of holding powdered anatase titanium dioxide. Embedded in the fibrous mesh is a source of ultraviolet light that is used to photo-excite the titanium dioxide. Air containing carbon monoxide is passed through the reaction chamber, and carbon monoxide is oxidized to carbon dioxide which then passes out of the filter. An alternative embodiment is a rectangular plate several feet square containing fibrous material containing titanium dioxide. Ultraviolet light impinges on the fibrous material photo-exciting the titanium dioxide. When air from an HVAC system is passed through the filter, carbon monoxide is oxidized into carbon dioxide and thus effectively removed from the air. Ultraviolet light can alternatively be supplied to the filter via lossy optical waveguides or fiber optics. These waveguides may be coated with titanium dioxide or the titanium dioxide may be separately suspended in the filter.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5564065A/en

Sub-orbital aircraft carriers

Figures source: Sub-orbital aircraft carrier.

The idea of a flying "aircraft carrier" is not new, even Lockheed had a plan for a giant nuclear-powered bomber that would carry its protector airplanes. Previously we had balloon airships that carried airplanes. The problem of all these carriers was that they were slow and vulnerable and could be easily shot down.

Things change when this carrier is orbital and out of the reach of most common weapons. Up to four Scramjet spaceplanes per mothership are enough. Many small motherships are better than a few big ones because the enemy doesn't know where to shoot his expensive anti-satellite missiles.

The carrier can have its own defenses: LASERs, Plasma railguns and anti-missiles and even nukes. So it's not so vulnerable in the orbit. It can move FAST (Mach 24 - Mach 32) and strike everywhere.

Sleep Paralysis. Really?

They call that sleep paralysis to reassure the crowd, but I can assure you it is not. If it was, you would not see the same thing all times. Hallucinations don't appear the same all times. It is definitely NOT a paralysis, so what it is? The explanation of sleep paralysis is ridiculous.

They are seen in forests popping out of trees or water surfaces and trying to trap people and of course while waking up. They are called faeries or banshees. They are wild and playful and sometimes even hostile.

Future weaponry

In the future, powerful LASERs will make missiles worthless and nukes will be used only to finish off an already crashed enemy, but even a LASER cannot stop an incoming plasma strike. So plasma railguns will be developed in the future along with LASERs as main weaponry. Both of these weapons have only one ammunition: Energy. If you have enough energy, you will never run out of ammunition...

Plasma railguns.

A plasma railgun is a linear accelerator which, like a projectile railgun, uses two long parallel electrodes to accelerate a "sliding short" armature. However, in a plasma railgun, the armature and ejected projectile consists of plasma, or hot, ionized, gas-like particles, instead of a solid slug of material. Scientific plasma railguns are typically operated in vacuum and not at air pressure. They are of value because they produce muzzle velocities of up to several hundreds of kilometers per second. Because of this, these devices have applications in magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), magneto-inertial fusion (MIF), High Energy Density Physics research (HEDP), laboratory astrophysics, and as a plasma propulsion engine for spacecraft. Plasma railguns appear in two principle topologies, linear and coaxial. Linear railguns consist of two flat plate electrodes separated by insulating spacers and accelerate sheet armatures. Coaxial railguns accelerate toroidal plasma armatures using a hollow outer conductor and a central, concentric, inner conductor.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_railgun

Normal railguns.

Electromagnetic railguns and lasers are two technologies the military is harnessing as an alternative to gunpowder. The U.S. Navy is pioneering the futuristic weapons that could play a vital role in future combat.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems announced Wednesday that its Blitzer railgun hypersonic projectiles successfully passed tests at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah between 7 and 9 March 2016. Both General Atomics and BAE Systems have created cutting-edge Electromagnetic Railguns. In 2012, the Office of Naval Research began testing them.

A railgun projectile will travel at Mach 6 – that’s nearly three times faster than the typical bullet. And the railguns will be able to strike threats more than 100 nautical miles away in approximately six minutes. They could be deployed against a range of threats for precision strikes against land, water surface or air targets.

Source: https://bgr.com/2016/03/17/futuristic-military-railgun-bullets-could-travel-at-mach-6/

Solid State Fibre Laser Guns.

Hypersonic future aircraft.

New Engine without moving parts.

Supersonic could be superseded by something even faster. Mach 2.5 is about the speed limit for gas-turbine engines. Any faster and the temperature and pressure of air entering the engine is too high for the turbomachinery inside. To fly at hypersonic speed - Mach 5 and above - requires a different type of engine.

A supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet, has no moving parts. Instead of the rotating compressor and turbine in a jet engine, air is compressed and expanded by complex systems of shockwaves under the front of the aircraft, inside the inlet and under the fuselage at the rear.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2866982/The-shape-wings-come-Nasa-s-weird-wonderful-concept-planes-someday-make-supersonic-travel-common-place.html


New navigation system without moving surfaces.

Researchers in the UK have flown the first aircraft that can maneuver without conventional control surfaces or flaps. In place of elevators and ailerons, the aircraft uses jets of air along the back of the wing to control lift. The demonstration aircraft has been developed as a testbed for new flight-control systems and aircraft manufacture techniques.

Jets of air along the back edge of the wing change how air flows over the wing, a process called circulation control. This can be used to induce the air flowing over the wing to flow around the back edge of the wing instead of simply flowing past. This produces more lift. By turning off and on jets strategically placed along the trailing edges of the wings, the pitch and roll can be controlled.

That is not all these new aircraft can do. It was also designed to test Fluidic Thrust Vectoring (FTV). Most next-generation fighter aircraft have or will incorporate some form of vectored thrust, enabling the pilot to control the direction the thrust from the engine leaves the aircraft. This greatly increases maneuverability and control of the aircraft. However, conventional vectored thrust technologies require a lot of complicated moving parts at the business end of a jet engine. FTV should simplify things by deflecting the thrust of the jet engine by injecting a higher pressure jet of air along the nozzle wall. This secondary jet will deflect the thrust of the engine.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2010/10/new-test-plane-flies-without-flaps/

Thrust vector control (TVC) is only possible when the propulsion system is creating thrust; separate mechanisms are required for attitude and flight path control during other stages of flight.

Thrust vectoring can be achieved by four basic means:

a. Gimbaled engine(s) or nozzle(s)
b. Reactive fluid injection
c. Auxiliary engines (fixed or movable)
d. Exhaust vanes

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust_vectoring

Auxiliary engines are expensive and moving parts aren't a good idea in hypersonic speeds, so the best solution seems to be (b).

Figure source: SECONDARY GAS INJECTION THRUST VECTOR CONTROL

Figure source: Thrust shock vector control of an axisymmetric conical supersonic nozzle via secondary transverse gas injection

As someone can realize, a system with 4 injection ports up-left-down-right and two engines can give us a complete 3-D thrust vector control for roll, pitch, and yaw. I believe that this DDSCRAMJET Directional Double SCRAMJET will be the standard engine for the future hypersonic aircraft.

New shapes.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2866982/The-shape-wings-come-Nasa-s-weird-wonderful-concept-planes-someday-make-supersonic-travel-common-place.html

Orbital Vehicles.

Scramjet engines give our aircraft orbital capability. The new navigation system without moving surfaces can operate in the orbit as well because it doesn't need the air to turn the vehicle, it does that using the gas from the engines.

Dual Carbon Japanese Batteries.

Japanese company Power Japan Plus has announced the development and planned mass-production of "Ryden," a disruptive carbon battery that can be charged 20 times faster than an ordinary lithium-ion cell. The battery, which is cheap to manufacture, safe, and environmentally friendly, could be ideal to improve the range and charging times of electric cars.

The battery employs carbon for both electrodes. The company is developing its own organic carbon material for the batteries. Carbon is the only active material in the cells.

A new battery developed by Power Japan and Kyushu University promises that – and more. The researchers describe their battery as "dual carbon" since both electrodes are made out of carbon. They claim that their design not only has a high energy density, but is also economical, very safe, reliable, and environmentally sustainable. Most importantly, it can charge 20x faster than its Li-ion counterpart.

According to the company, their technology would allow you to charge the battery of a Nissan Leaf in 12 minutes instead of four hours. Because that battery has a capacity of 24 kWh, a back-of-the-envelope extrapolation would give us a charging time of 42 minutes for the 85 kWh battery of a top of the line Tesla Model S.

Power Japan also claims that their battery has energy density comparable to state of the art lithium-ion, with manufacturing costs that are equal or lower. This is because carbon, which is widely available in nature, is the only active ingredient, and the batteries can fit into a standard 18650 cell (the one used in laptops and electric cars), requiring no significant change to existing manufacturing lines.

Further characteristics that make it particularly suitable for electric cars are a long lifetime of 3,000 charge/discharge cycles (Li-ion's life is closer to 1,000 cycles) and the ability to discharge fully without the risk of short-circuiting and damaging the battery. Moreover, the battery doesn't heat up, so it wouldn't require the extensive cooling systems that appear in current electric cars. Thermal stability also makes the battery much safer, because it eliminates the risk of thermal runaway, which can cause explosions. And it would be more powerful than other batteries, operating at over four volts.

Power Japan is planning to start production of 18650 dual carbon cells later this year for specialty applications such as medical devices and satellites, and they plan to license the technology to other companies for use in electric vehicles.

Source: New "dual carbon" battery charges 20 times faster than Li-ion

Black Phosphorus Microchips.

There is a possibility that we 'll have microchips made of Phosphorus, Carbon, and Potassium. A P-C crystal will give a P-type semiconductor while a P-K crystal will give an N-type semiconductor.


Black Phosphorus Semiconductors.

The researchers also show it may be possible to tune the electronic properties of 2-D phosphorus by altering (aka doping) it with foreign atoms. This should be of value to electronics manufacturers, Yakobson said. Carbon and zinc may boost positive conductivity, while potassium may increase negative conductivity; the researchers believe phosphorus may be a promising anode material for batteries. In fact, 2-D phosphorus has more in common with three-dimensional silicon, the most common element in semiconducting electronics like computer chips. As in 2-D phosphorus, grain boundaries in silicon don’t cause band-gap changes. However, point defects in silicon can change its properties, unlike point defects in phosphorus. This suggests 2-D phosphorus could also be a candidate for high-performance electronics.

Source: Rice University - Phosphorus a promising semiconductor

Black Phosphorus Optoelectronics & Nanophotonics.

Black phosphorus is also referred to as a “direct-band” semiconductor. This is a rare property, meaning the material can effectively and efficiently convert electrical signals back to light, making it a prime candidate for on-chip optical communication. University of Minnesota Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student Nathan Youngblood, whose paper on black phosphorus featured in Nature Photonics believes:

“It is really exciting to think of a single material that can be used to send and receive data optically and is not limited to a specific substrate or wavelength. This could have huge potential for high-speed communication between CPU cores which is currently a bottleneck in the computing industry right now.”

Source: FUTURE TECH - Could Black Phosphorous Be the Future of Microchips?

The following research paper states that Black Phosphorus can be used equally as a nanophotonic crystal and nanoelectronic semiconductor crystal. The same microchip could be made of black phosphorus and could have an optical part and an electronic part and an optoelectronic bus between the two parts!

Recent Advances in Black‐Phosphorus‐Based Photonics and Optoelectronic Devices
Pulak Chandra Debnath  Kichul Park  Yong‐Won Song
First published: 28 February 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.201700315 Cited by: 1

Abstract
In the recent past, 2D black phosphorus (BP) has been intensively studied and examined due to its unique electronic, photonic, and mechanical properties. The tunable and moderate direct bandgap and the high carrier mobility of BP provide enormous potential in electronic and optoelectronic applications. In addition, the unique intrinsic anisotropic characteristics resulting from the puckered structure yield remarkable optical, electronic, transport, mechanical, and thermal characteristics that can be utilized for designing new devices. Significant efforts have been directed toward the synthesis, basic understanding, and applications of BP in the fields of nanoelectronics, ultrafast optics, nanophotonics, and optoelectronics. Here, the current development of electronic, photonic, optoelectronic, and optical devices based on BP is summarized, along with the recent advances in investigating its electronic, optical, and mechanical properties, which form the foundation for next‐generation chip‐scale integrated devices. In addition, a comprehensive discussion on the requirements for forthcoming studies to upgrade well‐systemized fabrication techniques toward large‐area, high‐yield, and perfectly shielded BP‐film production for the development of reliable devices in optoelectronic applications and other areas is provided. Finally, some existing challenges in implementing BP‐based optoelectronic and photonic devices are addressed and the prospects for future BP‐related research are discussed.

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smtd.201700315

The operating frequencies of black phosphorus nanophotonic crystals are in the mid-infrared band 10 - 500 THz.

Source: The renaissance of black phosphorus 

Phosphorus nano-cell batteries.

Phosphorus is considered as a promising anode for Na-ion battery because of its high theoretical capacity of 2595 mAh/g. In this study, two phosphorus-carbon (P-C) composites with well-controlled compositions and nanostructures of P and C have been developed: P@YP composite with P confined within porous structure of YP-80F carbon and P@CNT with unconfined P deposited on the surface of carbon nanotube.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211285517304962

This study tells us that it is possible to create a battery by putting together many nanostructures that work as micro-cells. It is actually a P-C microchip that works as a battery. The capacity of 2.5 Ah/g is very good. It also says that a solid electrolyte of Na-ions is used.

Despite the reported performance after 1k cycles, the research is continued. There is another study that uses K-ions and states: "By the X-ray diffraction analysis, the alloying–dealloying mechanism of phosphorus is proposed to form a KP phase".

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378775317316853

So it is again P-C and P-K crystals. In the future, BP-chips will also contain their rechargeable nano-cells that power them practically "forever". We just don't know how to do it... yet...

Future Houses and Cars.

Houses of the future will be made of glass and metal. Double glass insulating panels along with solar windows will ensure absolute energy conservation. The car parking will be on the roof along with additional solar panels and wind generators. They will be completely safe from fires and earthquakes but vulnerable to storms and burglars. That's why there will be autonomous underground bunkers underneath that will be able to keep the owner safe until help arrives.

Cars will be flying, exclusively electrical, made of very light materials, fully computerized and self-driving, as we have said in the previous posts.

All this may seem expensive to you now, but automation - whole factories will operate without a single worker using 3D printing and robotics technology - and mass production will greatly reduce prices.

Source: https://singularityhub.com/2018/03/18/this-3d-printed-house-goes-up-in-a-day-for-under-10000/

Source: https://interestingengineering.com/these-3d-printed-cars-start-at-just-10000

The price of $10,000 is for now that these are not yet widespread. Mass production, antagonism and technology progress will decrease the price further.