4 ms·
I'm curious. What happens when one starts a fire on mars to forge a metal? We can't ship metal, it's much to heavy. So we have to consider that beneath the fin
by jdironman 10y ago
I'm curious. What happens when one starts a fire on mars to forge a metal?
We can't ship metal, it's much to heavy. So we have to consider that beneath the fine powdery surface of mars there lies basalt rock. Is there a type of concrete that can be constructed from basalt material?
- pjc50 10y agoWell, you can't start a fire in the atmosphere. So either you have one inside, or (more likely) you'd use induction heating to do the forging. Concrete requires some rather specific calcium chemistry. But basalt is quite a good building material on its own, especially if you adopt Inca building techniques of mortarless flat-surface construction. Then all you'd need to do is construct interior insulating airtight shells to live in. There's plenty of iron on the red planet, and from the red dust comes oxygen. Nitrogen will be harder to obtain.
- wycx 10y agoYou still need heat, but you can make fiber from basalt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber Among other things its used to make a type of rebar.