Mars Exploration Technology has achieved many recent successes. Moxie successfully made oxygen from the atmosphere, while the ingenuity rose 72 times above the red planet. So far, however, nobody has achieved one thing that will be absolutely critical for a long -term presence on Mars – drinkable water. There were many ideas on how to do it. NASA recently started to finance a doctoral student of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) called Lydia Ellen Tonani-Penha to examine the problem as part of its financing program for research opportunities (research opportunities for Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities). Her project Tethys will examine how Mars is cleaned by frozen or liquid saltlake.
Ms. Tonani-Penha presented last month together with Dr. Robert Hyers, the chairman of the mechanical engineering department of WPI machine construction and Planetary Science in Texas in Texas, a summary. In it she represents a five-point plan to evaluate and tackle the challenge of cleaning Marswasser in order to make it ready for human consumption.
In the first place is a literature overview. Many research work on the composition of Marsregoliths and methods was carried out to clean the particularly poisonous fumbling with which it is mixed. Perchlorates were a bug bear of Mars Exploration -enthusiasts for good reason. They penetrate almost every part of the surface of the Mars and are extremely poisonous for all known life forms. Removing is possible, but tedious and energy -intensive. One of Tethys' main goals is to develop a more effective way.
Fraser discusses a realistic way to complete a Mars mission.
Prototyping would be the next step. Ms. Tonani-Penha plans to create a prototype system that with Mars simula and perhaps some additional frozen water is being considered on the conditions in the northern hemisphere, where frozen water under the surface is relatively common. Other factors such as the heat transfer and electrical conductivity properties of the regolite are also included in prototype construction.
After all, Ms. Tonani-Penha plans to propose future work to promote her studies. It is still a long way until a full system for the production of clean water on the Mars is also ready for testing on the red planet, let alone used as a mission -critical system component. Going through the technical hurdles, regardless of whether vague estimates of the properties of the regoliths in different regions or the electricity consumption are required to complete the cleaning of the water, will be the last step in the one -year financing program.
Project Tethys himself is only one of many efforts on these fronts. However, since more and more academic papers treat the problem, they attract more and more attention. One day when people ever want a long -term presence on the Red Planet, we have to put up with how we get clean water. Most likely, it will not be from the shipping of off-world. This means that something like a successor to Project Tethys will see the light of the day on Mars.
