Re: NASA finds Masses of Water on Mars !!!!!

Posted by Southern Man on May 28, 2002 at 08:16
(209.102.128.128)

Re: NASA finds Masses of Water on Mars !!!!! (ADK)

And how big does a solar panel on Mars have to be to generate enough power in a year or so to split water and CO2 and recombine the pieces into enough hydrocarbon fuel to boost a small pod back to orbit? Without nitrogen I suspect that's going to be very difficult even if the dust storms don't blow away the panels. On earth it would be impossible since the ratio of energy to mass of hydrocarbon fuels is too low. I haven't done the math but with the lower gravity it might be possible to achieve orbit with only hydrogen and carbon.

Maybe we just need to think outside the box. With about twice as much argon as nitrogen in the atmosphere, what kind of argon based fuel could we produce while we're sitting around holding our breath waiting for the water to melt?

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