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despite the topic name, I believe that this is in the right forum:
Where would the first few expeditions on mars get their water? Water can be recycled, especially if you have a 'biosphere', and not a hab running on canned air, but only up to a point. It's not economical to bring 3 years of water from earth. So where can an early colony get some water on mars?
Is it a good idea to get it form the atmosphere? I know that that isn't a good source of H for fuel, but what about for biological uses
Or would it be a good idea to use permafrost mining?
Or what about using the h2o2 in the regolith to make o2 and h2o?
I'm assuming that they are near the equator, for max sunlight etc, so it's really pointless to get water from the PIC's
-Josh
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The first missions to Mars will be sited close to where we have permafrost or even ice. This will allow them to then simply heat it out and use it.
Colonies are a much different prospect they could not use permafrost water as they would literally leach a large area and could well cause subsidence.
Assuming we just dont go the collect from the polar ice route there is one other place. We know Mars is volcanic and all evidence points to it still being so. This means localised heat spots will form below the ground and water will get trapped just like it does here on Earth. These Aquifers can be tapped and the water pumped to the surface. We may also find that the water is already under pressure and we may well get a power source out of having tapped the water.
Chan eil mi aig a bheil ùidh ann an gleidheadh an status quo; Tha mi airson cur às e.
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Grypd - Is this really a problem?
As long as you get the topography right, couldn't you site the permafrost mines well away from the base and just bring it in on trailers or via plastic pipes on a down slope?
I think we will still have state of the art water filters and recycling on Mars.
Should be able to achieve 80% plus efficiency I would have thought.
That will mean that the need for a continuous water supply will be limited. It may well be required more for industrial processes.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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If there's H2O2 in the regolith, we can use it to get O2, H2O, and energy via this eqaution: 2 H2O2 = 2 H2O + O2 + Energy.
Use what is abundant and build to last
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There seems to be quite a lot of water Ice on the planet in craters, the poles, the regolith etc. I don't imagine it will be too much of problem to get water (and oxygen). Thats just heating and electrolysis, with filtering.
I'm a little more concerned at how you would produce food on this planet. Thats looks like it will be a daunting task.
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I favour permafrost mining because that will be a double use for the mini-digger i would recommend taking as part of a minimal mission. Multitasking of machines will keep down mission mass.
I've suggested we probably need some sort of microwave machine that can turn the ground into something more like slush, which can then be loaded into a trailer (where it will quickly refreeze). Icy ground can quickly blunt all sort of cutters/diggers, so this would make sense. Maybe one crew member should have a sort of pneumatic drill-cum-microwave generator that would break up the regolith and allow the digger to scoop it up.
Heating and filtering the permafrost blocks should be a fairly easy task.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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