Recapping earlier posts: we’ve launched from Earth, in one big ship or 10,000 smaller ones, we’ve completed the six-month plus journey and played 2,000 Scrabble games, and we’ve found a place to live, above ground in a lovely domed city, underground or a combo.
Now that we’re on Mars, what can we get local, or what will we need to ship from Earth. Using a relatively simple search query, “provide a list of the major raw materials used in manufacturing,” I found a short list of ninety-two raw materials that are sourced from mining, drilling, or agriculture: from sand and gravel, to steel and aluminum, to petroleum products, to basic agricultural products. You can see the article and the list here: 92 Examples of Raw Materials – Simplicable.
Now this list is not exhaustive and summarizes some categories (e.g., Rare Earths is comprised of multiple elements), but it’s a place to start. Of the 92 materials listed, 41 are derived from agriculture, fishing, or livestock. We’ll address those in a subsequent post when we tackle the subject of agriculture more broadly. That leaves 51. And of these 51, almost 40 have been identified on Mars. Extraction may be more difficult than on Earth, but they are there.
NASA (and other organizations) are examining what we can extract directly Mars. Generally this is in the category of In-situ Resource Utilization, ISRU for short. Here’s a short video on the topic:
This is a ~13 minute video but it provides details on the surprising amount of minerals found on Mars and makes the point that the essential elements for a human outpost are there. Good news for the future Martian Miners.
Here is a summary of resources, uses, and what it would take to extract them in an article from NASA: Overview: In-Situ Resource Utilization – NASA
And finally, an organization I was privileged to help with their habitat in 2024, The Mars Society, posts interesting articles and information on all things Mars: The Mars Society, or watch this 16 minute video
Colonizing Mars | The Mammoth Task of Supporting Humans in a Martian Colony | Watch
But one thing we won’t have at first is lumber. Interesting thought—wood might just be the rarest commodity in the universe. Here’s a short 1-minute video where Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses this topic:
So, what’s the bottom line, what should we consider when we think about colonizing Mars? Well, with regards to raw materials, we don’t need to ship everything there from Earth. We can re-think how we extract raw materials and process them into final products needed for human settlement. We might not have everything (no fossil fuels as far as we know), but the building blocks are there.
With core science research and advanced engineering, it just might be doable. And who knows, we might just learn something that improves resource utilization right here on our home planet—the ultimate location for ISRU.
Thanks for stopping by.
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