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ISRU is how humans will eventually live on Mars
- PaulHoule 4y agoI for one want to quit hearing about producing breathing oxygen on the Moon. You can breathe 100% oxygen but if you do it long enough you will wind up like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0YB5r4vzVo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0YB5r4vzVo You are going to have to mix in a larger quantity something inert like He, Ar, N2 or SF6 to make a good breathing gas. I've been sketching out chemical factories that you could send to a place like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Themis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Themis and I would say it is the availability of Nitrogen that has be worrying. Also the idea that you have to go to some special asteroid to get iron is wrong I think. https://www.space.com/moon-metal-mystery-clue-in-craters.html https://www.space.com/moon-metal-mystery-clue-in-craters.htm... is a recent result but astronauts brought back top-quality hematite from the moon in the Apollo era. Not only is iron a great structural material but iron and related elements have great catalytic activity for turning materials common on asteroids like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphaltite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphaltite into something useful.