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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[–]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.