Medicine, samples and other biochemicals from Mars( another way players can make money from Mars )
As it was suggested previously in
http://hyperkat.com/litterbox/index.php?topic=462.0if a life on Mars was to be found, and if it had some properties that we lust for, it would only be cultivated for profit on Mars, becouse no martian life could be transported to Earth directly becouse of the risk of contamination.
Therefore - most studies about martian life will be made on Mars, and every preciouse biochemicals made by it would be imported from the Mars base.
This includes: antigens, medicine, bio-polimers, genetic markers, enzimes and many other...
Even if you ware to send a sample of it somewhere safe for futher studies (Universities, bio-corporations and whole countries would pay A LOT for a sample of those), you would first have to multiply them.
But first - in order to make that profit, you will have to find that life (see here--->
http://hyperkat.com/litterbox/index.php?topic=296.0).
When you have it, you will be able to check that microbes if they produce anything you want. (And they will for sure - just not sure what it is. Any life that is so much exotic as from Mars WILL have some interesting features).
So when you have a sample of martian life, and you made some basic test on what they are, you need to cultivate them.
And it's easy (in theory). All you have to do is to put it inside a
bioreactor, and set the bioreactor's parameters as those you previously tested.
After a while, they are ready. You drain the bioreactor, and extract the product, aswell as the microbes. You then can sell it for profit.
By searching for other life-forms you gain a library of microbiological life on Mars that you can cultivate inside the bioreactor for profit.
Some bacteria could be rare and make more profit, other could be common but for instance - faster to grow.
Players would not only search for minerals they need, but also for rare bacteria somewhere around the map.
Typical bioreactor. - Insert bacteria. Set parameters as those you tested. Wait. Drain and extract product and more bacteria.