A Mars colony could be a hydrogen factory, providing propellant for the inner solar system. A new paper from Dr. Mikhail Shubov at the University of Massachusetts Lowell discusses just such an eventuality. Hydrogen is useful in myriad applications.

submitted by Chop_Chop from (phys.org)

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[–]Brewdabier 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I don't see this happening within the next 100 years, example NASA talked about a moon colony back in the 60s and that has never happen.

[–]Chop_Chop[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I don't see this happening within the next 100 years, example NASA talked about a moon colony back in the 60s and that has never happen.

First powered flight - 1903

Who imagined jets 108 years ago? What happened to optimism?

The US went to the moon in a decade. Those people didn't say it would take 100 years. No moon colony but they went there (supposedly!). Seems many people are pessimists these days. Sad, really.

[–]Brewdabier 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

If not for German scientists and engineers the US would not have built the first jet or Hawk Engine • Valiant Engine • Kolibri Engine • Titan Engine • Frontier Engine • RCS Thrusters • Ion Engine. Germans made it happen and I think USSR was first in space but anyway the moon is 238,900 mi and how many decades sense man went to it and Mars is 241.63 million mi, yes they have robots there but man. Come on

[–]Chop_Chop[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Well Germany is way ahead of the US when it comes to hydrogen. They have published a "National Hydrogen Strategy" and are working on projects every day. Maybe they will build a H2 plant on mars. The entire world could get rid of oil probably within 10 years, maybe less, if everyone knew the benefits of hydrogen, but that would make the PetroDollar irrelevant. And if anyone thinks that would be easy they haven't been paying attention.

[–]Brewdabier 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Hydrogen used in the fuel cells is a very flammable gas and can cause fires and explosions if it is not handled properly. This mars thing is like noah's ark. I read somewhere it would take 8 months to go to mars, lets say two people go on a space craft to mars. That's about 750 meals per person plus water (about 3.7 liters per day per person) one way so you need a vessel big enough for two people, food and water. Water would weight about 360 gallons round trip and that's just drinking water. But the could filter the water so lets say 100 gallons.

[–]Node 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Very likely at some point, if we can avoid civilizational collapse, and we'll never have interplanetary war until it does.