Forgot your password?
Education Task Force
~ 
The Terraforming Information Pages
When Earthmover Is A Misnomer: Construction Vehicle Design For Lunar And Martian Applications
Slosberg, Daniel D.1 (2000)
The "Martian Farmer" - Mining Water from the Martian Regolith
Document Actions
In: On to Mars, Colonizing a New World, edited by Zubrin, RM, and Crossman, F. Apogee Books.
Mars’ atmosphere is saturated with water. On Mars, saturated means a partial pressure of about 0.1 Pa (compared with about 600 Pa on Earth (Moran & Shapiro, 2000)). That represents only 1 mg of water in every cubic meter of Martian air. In contrast, every kilogram of Martian regolith (soil) contains up to 40 grams of water (Zent & Quinn, 1997). A sabatier reactor big enough to fuel an Earth Return Vehicle such as that used in Mars Direct requires 9.7 grams of hydrogen per hour (Zubrin et al ., 1997), which can be produced from 88.1 g of water, or as much water as is contained in a little over 2 kg of soil. This paper discusses several methods for extracting water from atmosphere enhanced with water from the regolith. Methods include the WAVAR system previously discussed by Grover & Bruckner in the 1998 Mars Society Conference; freezing water out with a thermoelectric conveyor belt; and using a compression/refrigeration unit to first compress the bulk atmosphere and then freeze out the water. In all cases it is seen that the Martian Farmer is an enabling technology.
1 - Martian Water Research, Kalamazoo, MI email or homepage
Utilizing Martian Resources
Become a Mars Society Member to access the full content
University Rover Challenge Indication of Participation Deadline
Letter By Robert Zubrin Published In Today's New York Times
