Mars colonists could create a carbon dioxide plasma in order to supply oxygen to their settlement(s):
The atmosphere on Mars is 96 per cent carbon dioxide, says Vasco Guerra at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. This can be split to extract breathable oxygen and carbon monoxide, a fuel that could give us a "gas station on the Red Planet", he says. He and his team calculate that creating a carbon dioxide plasma — a mush of ions made by passing an electric current through a gas — could split carbon dioxide from oxygen more easily on Mars than on Earth.
The lower atmospheric pressure on Mars would allow us to create plasmas without the vacuum pumps or compressors necessary on Earth. Also, the temperature of around -60°C is just right to let the plasma more easily break one of the chemical bonds that keeps carbon and oxygen tightly bound, while preventing the carbon dioxide from re-forming.
For now, this is largely theoretical, but they say such a system needing only 150 to 200 Watts for 4 hours each 25-hour Mars day could produce 8 to 16 kilograms of oxygen. "The International Space Station currently consumes oxygen in the range of 2 to 5 kilograms per day, so this would be enough to support a small settlement," says Guerra.
The case for in situ resource utilisation for oxygen production on Mars by nonequilibrium plasmas (open, DOI: 10.1088/1361-6595) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @01:05PM (6 children)
> This can be split to extract breathable oxygen and carbon monoxide, a fuel that could give us a "gas station on the Red Planet"
and when that CO is burnt for power it will need the O that was liberated for breathing
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @01:23PM (2 children)
It may be possible to "burn" the CO with something more readily available on Mars? Perhaps some fluorine compounds?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Tara Li on Friday October 27 2017, @01:41PM (1 child)
Actually, the CO might be able to be fed into a variation of a Sabatier Process reactor (the Sabatier Process uses CO2 & hydrogen to make methane and water - CO2 + 4 H2O -> CH4 + H2O, so you'd need to switch to CO + 3H2 -> CH4 + H2O - seems doable...)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday October 28 2017, @04:23PM
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Friday October 27 2017, @02:07PM
Why burn the CO at all? Use electric vehicles.
Oh, wait. Nevermind. Mars will only allow such vehicles to be sold through dealerships.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @02:40PM (1 child)
Not necessarily.
You can use excess CO for reduction of ample iron ore on The Red Planet, to get pure metal as raw material, and at the same time replenish amount of CO2 you started with.
Effectively, starting with energy, iron ore and CO2, you get pure iron and breathable air.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 27 2017, @08:52PM
Yup. Fess up. You saw that in this Total Recall scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqYHK8CeKzU [youtube.com]
Just after we build the mother of all nuclear generation plants on Mars, you plunge those electrodes into the soil, and instant atmosphere.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.