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To: Dead Corpse

Judging by what appears to be in the soil, I think we should produce glass from silca sand, and iron from the iron oxide, and build at least one other dome while we're here.

We may be able to condense out some atmospheric water, or bake some out of the rocks, especially underground rocks.

With any luck, we can have a fully functioning terrarium before it's time to go. It would be a nice present to future settlers to have a shelter set up for them, with food available.


2,775 posted on 04/15/2006 3:12:52 PM PDT by NicknamedBob (I don't want a World with empty dreams ... Dump the 1967 Outer Space Treaty Now! ... Farm Mars!)
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To: NicknamedBob
There is also evidence of frozen sub-surface water-ice. There is also evidence of kilometers worth of water ice at the poles.

As for mining the iron and silicates out of the soil, we're on it. Setting up a reactor core for large scale smelting and oxy burn-off. The atmo is already CO2, so getting things hot enough to dissociate into 2CO for catylizing the Fe3 out of raw soil should be a snap. Silicates and making steel could be a bit more tricky, but we are looking pretty good so far.

2,784 posted on 04/15/2006 3:21:47 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.)
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