I have often thought that in the future, there'd be a machine that you could scoop raw earth into (like "Mr. Fusion" in the movie "Back To The Future II") -- an

I have often thought that in the future, there'd be a machine that you could scoop raw earth into (like "Mr. Fusion" in the movie "Back To The Future II") -- any kind of raw earth -- and the machine would automatically separate the raw earth into its constituent elements... Now, such a device would probably seem a little bit far fetched... But the first step in making such a device, if it could ever be engineered, would be to melt the inserted raw earth into a hot liquid state. (From this hot liquid state further chemical refinement processes could be completed, such as scooping out heavier elements from the bottom and lighter elements from the top of the liquid. Any emitted gasses could be captured and cooled down, liquified, etc. From there further chemical refinement processes of the liquids could take place, ultimately resulting in refined Elements being output...) This technology -- the ability to "melt rocks" (aka, the ability to melt raw earth, any raw earth notwithstanding its chemical composition) might just enable the taking of that first step to creating such a machine... Such a machine, should it ever exist, would find great application on Mars in the future, should it ever be able to get there... Anyway, I wish this company a lot of luck in their endeavors!