Transformations Tree - discussion

[Marco2001]

ISRU - In Situ Resource Utlization.
ISRU technologies uses local resources like regolith, air, rocks, energy sources and transforms them into things you need.
Using ISRU Mars colony can not only expand but bring only a fraction mass of the resources and equipement from earth (which make's it extreamly cheaper).
ISRU technologies are therefore one of the main (if not the primary) aspects of estabilishing a colony on Mars.
ISRU on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Situ_Resource_Utilization

During the early phases of human Mars exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) will lower costs, expand capabilities, and serve as an enabling technology for establishing permanent colonies. Martian atmospheric resources can be used to provide consumables such as fuel, oxidant, breathable air, and water that are critical for early human missions. Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide and imported hydrogen can be used, for example, as feedstock for the catalytic production of oxygen, methane, methanol, and other propellants and water (Zubrin, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, Zubrin, Meyer, McMillen 1998, Meyer 1981).

These processes utilize catalytic reactors containing small amounts of iron, nickel and other suitable catalysts, plus gas selective membranes, electrolysis, and other easily implemented gas separation techniques. Waste carbon monoxide from carbon dioxide reduction processes together with hydrogen can be combined to produce other liquid and gaseous fuels and chemical compounds. Excess heat from an exothermic Sabatier reaction can be diverted to minimize heat requirements in endothermic processes such as the reverse water-gas shift reaction. Thus valuable synergies can be realized by integrating various processes. Oxygen and fuel production processes can be combined so the thermal and material wastes of one process can be utilized by the other thus forming a unique Martian “chemical refinery” that features internal hydrogen recycling and production of a purified carbon monoxide intermediate by-product. Turbines can also be used to recover mechanical energy from high-pressure waste gas and systems can share common hardware and feedstock systems. Thus feedstock, power, heat and mechanical energy are utilized efficiently and conserved in the design of these robust Martian atmospheric refineries whose technologies may also find applications in industrial waste utilization technology on Earth.

http://www.marssociety.org/portal/TMS_Library/MAR_98_097/view


What resources would you find on Mars?
How would you use them?
What does a Mars colony need to survive and grow?
How would you transform those resources and what would you do with them later-on in MCO?

Please send your opinions.

[Marco2001]

Water
First of all: water can be found underground. There should be some frozen highly-preasurized lakes deep underground. In order to get that water you would only need to find it and drill it to the surface
using a combination of water-pumps and heat injectors. It's an easy source of large amounts of water but they should be very rare.
Secondly: WAVAR. WAVAR is an equipement that drains water disolved in martian atmosphere. It uses practicly no power and no space, but in Mars conditions it needs some time to gather large amounts of it. Player would need to drail the tanks manually from time to time using water cans.
Thirdly: RWGS reactor. CO2 + H2 = CO + H2O    
The H2O can be than electrolyzed more efficiently in-situ to H and O2.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ISRU-III-99/pdf/8004.pdf
http://spot.colorado.edu/~meyertr/rwgs/rwgs.html
I would also like to point-out that RWGS makes preasurized CO which can be stored in gas tanks. Those gas tanks when full could than be replaced with empty ones, and the full ones are taken to Air-Preasure Power Generator to store power.
Fourthly: Water Synthesis Reactor (WSR): 2 H2 + O2 = 2 H2O   It may happen that you have much Hydrogen and Oxygen but you need desperatly water NOW. No problem - add hydrogen and oxygen to gain water almost instantly...and since this is exothermic proces that requires only a catalisator, you don't even need to power-up WSR, so that you could make water even when base is out of power.

Those are the main possibilities. There are more ways to make water...for instance by MMARS equipement, plant/air recuperator or bying it :-)

What can you do with water?
1) Drink it. In order for water to be drinkable you would first need to destilate it, using distillizer.
2) Take it to electrolyser (needs power). H2O = 2H2 + O2
3) Give them to plants/animals.
4) Add it to other reactions....like RWGS 2nd stage (it's more efficiently than simple electrolyser).
5) Use it to extract P2O5 - which is later-on used for fertilizing. (NOTE: P2O5 and P4O10 is the same thing - check it out if you don't believe me)
P4 can be extracted from ores or from rocks.

P4 + 5 O2 → P4O10
P4O10 + 6H2O → 4H3PO4
4H3PO4 = Phosphoreus Fertilizer for plants

It can be like this: Player mines ore that contains P4, extracts it from the ground. Take's it to the furnace. He get's pure P4. He takes P4 and places it into Phosporeus Fertilizer Synthesizer (PFS)   [I just made that-up]. He add's water and oxygen. He presses start, and after some time he gets in return Phosporeus fertilizer, that he can add to the plants.

[Marco2001]

Nitrogen
Nitrigen is very common in Martian Air.
It can be easily extracted by condensing air.
The equipement that does that is called MMARS ---> http://hyperkat.com/litterbox/index.php?topic=371.0
MMARS uses lot's of power to my knowlage and is kinda big today (much smaller in the future of course).
Nevertheless - it will be used on Mars colony, becouse that's the only easy way to get large quantities of gas Nitrogen, without actually bringing it along.
And nitrogen is needed for 2 proceses: one vital one, and one non-vital.

The first one:
Nitrogen is the main Bufor Gas in Earth's atmosphere.
You can't breathe with pure oxygen - simply speaking....it's toxic without a bufor gas.
That's why you mix Oxygen with Nitrogen to make breathable air.

The second one:
Nitrogen is a component needed by the plants. They can't assymilate air nitrogen, but you can change it into Nitrogen Fertilizer first.
There are at least 2 proceses I found that can be potentially used to make Nitrogen Fertilizer on Mars (easily that is). First one requires to add hydrogen.
1) Synthesis of Ammonium chloride: HCl + NH3 → NH4Cl (making NH3 is easy - simply add hydrogen and catalyze the reaction...HCl on the other hand is kinda problematic since you would need to make gas chlorium first. NaCl from Halit deposits maybe?)
2) Find Nitrate (V) sodium ores. NaNO3
or Nitrokalit KNO3
Those Nitrate fertilizers can be found with halite deposits.
On Earth, they are ready to use almost instantly - on Mars, propably after some simple purification in some small machine, that disolves and (re)crystalizes them.

[Marco2001]

Methane
Methane is the "fuel" for power generators, rovers, ERV and other yet-unknown equipement.
As a fuel methane needs to be combined with oxygen to work. CH4 + 2O2 --> CO2 + 2H2O  (or CH4 + 3/2O2 --> CO + 2H2O or CH4 + O2 --> C + 2H2O)

BTW: Rovers and PG use methan as a fuel but they should make water from burning it! Let us not waste water! I think rover and PG should have they'r personal canisters that stores water, and players would collect it manually from time to time.

Methane can be made using Sebatier reactor. --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction
CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O
Water can than be processed futher in the sebatier reactor by electrolyzing it: 2H2O -> 2H2 + O2    (hydrogen get's back into cycle)

Modified Sebatier reactor should also be one of the base components of LSS (Life Support Systems).
Wikipedia says:

NASA is currently investigating the use of the Sabatier reaction to recover water from exhaled carbon dioxide, for use on the International Space Station and future missions. The other resulting chemical, methane, would most likely be dumped overboard. As half of the input hydrogen becomes wasted as methane, additional hydrogen would need to be supplied from Earth to make up the difference. However, this creates a nearly closed cycle between water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide which only requires a relatively modest amount of imported hydrogen to maintain.

Ignoring other results of respiration, this cycle would look like:

    2H2O → O2 + 2H2 → (respiration) → CO2 + 2H2 + 2H2 (added) → 2H2O + CH4 (discarded)

The loop could be completely closed if the waste methane was pyrolyzed into its component parts:

    CH4 + heat → C + 2H2

The released hydrogen would then be recycled back into the Sabatier reactor, leaving an easily removed deposit of pyrolytic graphite. The reactor would be little more than a steel pipe, and could be periodically serviced by an astronaut where the deposit is chiselled out.

One greate idea here: Methane Pyrolyze Reactor (MPR)  
If player is in need and have some additional stored Methane he could take it to MPR and make Hydrogen and Carbon. Hydrogen can then be used to make water with combining it
with oxygen in Water Synthesis Reactor (WSR) and carbon can be taken and procesed futher for plants use, chemical reactions or making Carbon-based Fertilizer.

Since we are at Liffe Support Systems....there is one more efficient reactor than Sebatier reactor. It's called Bosch reactor --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosch_reaction
CO2(g) + 2 H2(g) → C(s) + 2 H2O(g)  
[please note that this is a completely closed cicle...the reaction isn't perfect tho'. It uses lot's of power, and need to be cleaned very often]

[Mecanico]

One small bug, Marco:) Phosphorus acid (H3PO4) itself can not be used as fertilizer, you need to convert it into some phosphorane (best is ammonia phosphorane (NH4)3PO4 and magnesia phosphorane Mg3PO4). Ammonia isn't a big problem, magnesium is very common particle (chemically bounded in minerals, we should find it in halit deposits).

[Marco2001]

Mecanico PM

Steel
Steel is something you could produce in Steel Production Unit (SPU).
In order to make steel you would need to have iron and carbon.
Steel has up to 2% od carbon disolved in iron.
SPU uses a LOT of power when operating, since it needs to be heated up.

Why make steel?
1) It's the main building material for buildings and equipement. It can be used to manufacture futher some basic items or building blocks by your or other Mars bases.
2) Production of steel take's tame and effort. Selling Steel would gave more money than selling carbon and iron apart in total. Steel made on Mars has double the effectivenes of that fro earth due to low gravity.

Iron would of course needed to be mined first and refined in Ore Procesor.
Carbon can be gain in large number or chemical processes. One of them might be pyrolysis of CH4 to C and 2 H2.

[Utini]

Marco, physiologically, there is no reason that you can't breathe 100% oxygen for extended periods of time, as long as you keep total pressure at roughly 4 psi (the partial pressure of oxygen at sea level). Further, the lower pressure allows for a lighter construction. From a safety standpoint, however, a 100% oxygen environment has the potential for catastrophic immolation due to otherwise minor or innocuous thermal or electrical events, eg. Apollo 1 and Valentine Bondarenko.

[profit004]

What he so carefully glassed over with a thermal event statement was an astronauts body bursting into flames from the slightest spark like they were made out of gasoline and their body parts melting off of them like they were made of paraffin for the few agonizing final seconds of their life.

[Marco2001]

Here is a table with mars-regolith elements: http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC15/IMAGES/p57.JPG
Synthesizing Chemicals from known Mars resources: http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2362/synthesizingchemicalsfr.jpg


H2O (water) from hydrated CaSO4 (gypsum) deposits
Finding water/ice deposits near the base and in large quantities to support the base is very unlikely. Water will be found from time to time, but most likely we can't depend on finding it enough. It is more likely to find common hydrate minerals that has water captured inside of them for milions of years, and to release that water for our needs. Gypsum hydrate is one of that resources. It is very common, and for every mole of it you will gain 2 moles of water. As for the proces of releasing water...it's extremely easy and commonly used on earth. You just have to heat-up gypsum to about 150 deg. celcius, and all water is released. The remaining dehydrated gypsum can be discarded, or used to make martian concrete in the future.
 

Spectral data from orbit indicate widespread occurrence of gypsum on Mars, particularly in northern latitudes [1] and in layered deposits near the equator [2].

BASSANITE ON MARS. - 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2009)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/1654.pdf

Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) and bassanite (CaSO4.0.5H2O) were identified on Mars by OMEGA on Mars Express and CRISM on MRO [1, 2, 3].

RAMAN, MIR, AND NIR SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY OF CALCIUM SULFATES: GYPSUM, BASSANITE, AND ANHYDRITE. - 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2009)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/2128.pdf

Jarosite ( KFe3+3(OH)6(SO4)2 ) also was detected in large quantities on mars.

In 2004 jarosite was detected on Mars by a Mössbauer spectrometer on the MER-B rover, which has been interpreted as strong evidence that Mars once possessed large amounts of liquid water.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosite

In particular, jarosite (Figure 1a) has proven to have a great astrobiological importance, not only for its relation with liquid water, but also because it can act as a sink and source of Fe ions for Fe-related chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, such as those encountered in numerous extremophilic ecosystems.

Astrobiological significance of minerals on Mars surface environment: UV-shielding properties of Fe (jarosite) vs. Ca (gypsum) sulphates
http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0512/0512140.pdf

[Mecanico]

This two minerals (bessenite and jarosite) will become very important for Martians. First for production of concrete, second as very rich iron ore. Additionally as source of water, potassium, and sulfur(VI) acid.

[aozeba]

Nitrogen
Nitrigen is very common in Martian Air.
It can be easily extracted by condensing air.
Nitrogen is a component needed by the plants. They can't assymilate air nitrogen, but you can change it into Nitrogen Fertilizer first.

One other way to get nitrogen out of the air and into a form usable by plants: soybeans and other legumes have the ability to "fix" nitrogen and deposit it in the soil. Soybeans are a great crop for mars for all kinds of reasons (protein, flexibility, etc) but their ability to fix nitrogen essentially for free is a big one. Thats why they are used in crop rotations, if you plant soybeans and then another crop your field will be pre-fertilized.

[Snowpig]

Titanium

According to the provided link with the list of elements in Mars regolith you could produce titanium in a 2-step process.

first step is the production of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) via Chloride process

second step is the Kroll process where TiCl₄ is reduced to Ti by using Mg.

Main drawbacks:
- very high energy requirement
- several "waste" products like FeCl₃, MgCl₂ and CO, which have to be processed further.
- carbon 

[thedubman]

ISRU - In Situ Resource Utlization.
ISRU technologies uses local resources like regolith, air, rocks, energy sources and transforms them into things you need.
Using ISRU Mars colony can not only expand but bring only a fraction mass of the resources and equipement from earth (which make's it extreamly cheaper).
ISRU technologies are therefore one of the main (if not the primary) aspects of estabilishing a colony on Mars.
ISRU on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Situ_Resource_Utilization

[quote

Thats the kit we want,..

[Snowpig]

double checked this thread and the link to the mars regolith elements. Everything is there.

[pad69]

I love this kind of discussion and thought planing.