Mars: 3D printing raw material locations?

This 2001 view of mars seen by the Nasa Hubble space telescope might provide some clues as to locations where the raw materials for 3D printing might come from.

Continuing on our red planet theme from the last few days, this is a 2001 photo of Mars from the Hubble space telescope.Mars has about 0.5 the diameter of Earth, or a quarter of the surface area. (AKA available real estate for you speculators. 🙂 )

Mars, the God of War, is indeed mostly made of iron as the ancient alchemists thought, or specifically iron(II) oxide, aka rust. (Mars was thought to be the God of War because of its blood color. Iron, of course, was the metal of weapons and war, and rust also resembled blood.)

Critically, for expeditions, the poles contain significant amounts of water. The southern white polar ice cap, if melted, would cover the surface 11m in water. However, the polar ice caps also contain significant amounts of dry ice, that is, frozen CO2. When exposed to sunlight, it melts, creating enormous winds that cover the planet with CO2. We previously speculated 3D printing would be used to jump-start the manufacturing process because of its versatility. Plastic is mainly carbon, and this area might be one source of raw material for it. (The thin atmosphere is 96% CO2 with some trace water and oxygen, so it might be another, less concentrated, source.) In any even, water, oxygen, and hydrogen will each be a critical raw material for the settlers, and water (together with an energy source) makes all three available as a raw material on Mars.

It is worth pointing out that metal can also be 3D printed, with greater difficulty. Although iron (steel) can be 3D printed, this is usually done by mixing the steel with a fair amount of bronze (copper). Although iron as a potential raw material is plentiful on Mars, cooper is less so. For now, plastics are generally the preferred material for 3D printing on Earth, but Martian raw material economics might change that. Steel might be a cheaper raw material than plastic on a future Mars.

A version of this article originally appeared as a photo post on our Instagram feed.

Related posts:

Blue sunset on the Red Planet Mars Red Sky Rover: self-portrait of Mars Curosity at Gale Crater Mars One lander: candidate selection milestone Mars photo overload