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.
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
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.
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
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