NASA scientists are developing rocket fuel made from Martian soil

NASA scientists are developing rocket fuel made from Martian soil – Big Think

Surprising Science — November 1, 2018

Scientists at NASA are currently developing methane-creating robots to overcome this challenge.

Key Takeaways

NASA scientists are tackling the challenge of the immense weight of fuel required for a trip to Mars by proposing the extraction of fuel from water in the Martian soil.

The process involves extracting hydrogen from the water and combining it with carbon from the atmosphere to produce methane.

This innovative solution could potentially solve the fuel weight issue for future Mars missions.

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Scientists at NASA are working on a bit of alchemy that would greatly improve the chances of a mission headed there of actually returning. Otherwise, we’d have one of those desperately sad situations like in old science fiction movies where astronauts are simply stuck on the planet with no way to return.

The problem is this: Hauling fuel to Mars so that the return flight back to Earth actually succeeds is not just inefficient, but it would also take up a ton of precious cargo space. In order to solve this dilemma, NASA is currently working on utilizing solutions that are already on the planet itself.

One possible idea is to turn water from Martian soil, known as “regolith” (as is any topsoil and rock layer on any planetary body) into its components, hydrogen and oxygen. Then, once that is accomplished, combine carbon from Mars’ atmosphere with hydrogen, creating… methane!

Fuel from regolith?

The robot that will do this, known as RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot), is shown below in testing, and it illustrates how the surface material will be converted for use both as rocket fuel and as energy for inhabitants of a colony on such a planet.