Dust Dams harnessing the flow of Sandstorms of Mars?

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-05-25 09:23:33

2 Million tonnes can be moved in Sand and Dust storms, seems like a crazed idea but one might look at the effect of viscosity on the dust regolith avalanche dynamics. If you managed to collect tons of Sands or Dust above Valles Marineris or Melas Chasma a 5.6 miles or 9 km deep fall in a sand waterfall, from the plateau that would be a whopping level of potential energy to turn wheels and dynamo.

A material might flow by way of molybdenum and sulfur, Molybdenum disulfide MoS 2 found as molybdenite a crystalline mineral, or jordisite a rare low temperature form of molybdenite. Friction is a non-conservative force – work done against friction is path dependent. In the presence of friction, some kinetic energy is always transformed to thermal energy, so mechanical energy is not conserved.

One user Calliban suggested CO2 chemistry and Brine is a possibility, a most likely fluid is liquid CO2

Titan is a place where some have suggest Hydro Power can be used from its unique chemistry.

Maybe Dust should be seen as potential energy rather than a hazard that will always interrupt a colony and destroy Rovers and break down and damage equipment. If they can building Cars and Tanks and Bikes and Trucks to race in off-road endurance events in driest and coldest sandy desert of Earth then why can't we build Dams to work with sand and dust. There could also be an option of adding another chemical material to the Dust, Mars Soil or Snow Mars Sands to make it flow better. With a Dust dam and sands snow reservoir it is also a flexible source of electricity, since the amount produced by the Mars station can be varied up or down in seconds or minutes to adapt to changing energy demands of a nearby colony or settlement. Mars Dust Dams might also need to be Quake proof with recent news of Earthquakes on Mars and contain a risk of dam failure, which can be catastrophic. Flowing Water has become a huge sources of power on Earth and Hydro now giving as much as 16% will the flowing dust and sands of Mars also give the same level of power?

Tribology is the science and engineering of understanding friction, lubrication and wear phenomena for interacting surfaces in relative motion. superlubricity is a regime of motion in which friction vanishes or very nearly vanishes. Molybdenum disulfide is stable in air and attacked only by aggressive reagents. It reacts with oxygen upon heating forming molybdenum trioxide:

2 MoS2 + 7 O2 → 2 MoO3 + 4 SO2

Chlorine attacks molybdenum disulfide at elevated temperatures to form molybdenum pentachloride:

2 MoS2 + 7 Cl2 → 2 MoCl5 + 2 S2Cl2

Just like the Sun can be seen as a source of free energy, the movement sands or of wind or soil and particles or liquids can be seen as a potential form of free energy, sometimes sand, soil and other particles do behave like liquid, they hold Potential Energy can push Turbines, Mills and Dynamo. I was thinking of a site up higher in geology physical Mars geography, like a plateau high plain tableland but not too high and not too low, something with a crater on top and a basin that would collect much like people collect rainwaters on Earth. As little particles of tiny regolith and sand and dust then begin moving through pipes, a process could be used to extract any trapped Waters inside particles of sand and dust take out Chemicals and Elements (H2O), methane (CH4), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), hydroperoxyl HO2, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbonyl sulfide (OCS), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrous oxide N2O. 'Dust' is not reliable, it would not be as predictable as forecasting a rain-day in Juneau Alaska, Boston, Florida, or a sandstorm in Africa or a the Epic Monsoon Season in India Sometimes Mars has low Dust seasons and Dust storms originate in specific areas of Mars and most busy during the martian summer in the southern hemisphere. Over a long peroid of time Medusae Fossae Formation has been lost over millions upon millions of years a 7 to 40 foot or 2 to 12 meter thick global layer of Dust. However as unpredictable as Mars dust is every 10 or so years Mars can face a planet wide Duststorm. Dust everywhere on the planet Mars is enriched in sulfur and chlorine. To save a lot of energy and resources building large Egg-Timer contraptions and Pipes with Sand flow through them a Dust dam could also be built across the ancient extinct river beds, the equipment and facility itself built into the regolith and dried river, a power facility anchored on the dried river bedrock. Using already available natural material and craters and river channels of Mars would make the electrical power plant low maintenance, simply waiting for the storm and collecting would begin to Reduce time to collect elements and chemicals needed drilling, excavation and for extraction. The Mars sand itself may be used again in later construction to act as a natural filter for other chemicals and compounds. Once the Dust Dam is contructed, more people might move in to use the excess availble power much like Valley City or Valley Town People live next to big Dams on Earth, with available power and extraction of oxygen and waters new Domes and Space Bio-Garden might be created, vegetable gardens alongside the dried up Mars dust river beds where some form of natural irrigation can be practiced inside Mars Biodomes.

Here's a quick toon illustration I made
https://i.ibb.co/XSx1TNP/0u7999.jpg
perhaps the first DustDam might even be unmanned, as more are built it then provides power to a human colony

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-09-27 15:08:21)

SpaceNut · 2022-05-25 22:14:59

Well the end results of this on mars is last selfie ngcb1

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#1 2022-05-25 09:23:33

Dust Dams harnessing the flow of Sandstorms of Mars?

#2 2022-05-25 22:14:59

Re: Dust Dams harnessing the flow of Sandstorms of Mars?

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