Minerals

Minerals are natural resources needed as raw material for setup and extension of settlements on Mars. From recent unmanned missions some valuable minerals have been found, most of them by the Mössbauer spectrometer MIMOS II.

RL,I could have delved into this much deeepr, with more examples of dismissal from the blogosphere and even more pointed examples from the (have to say it) past' masters stating that they WERE trying to predict the (a) future, and had I gone that route, I would have delved into the issue you brought up.I was hunting for quotes from NASA engineers, many of whom said things like it was because of Astounding or Wonder Stories that I became an engineer and worked on the space program (many of those engineers were instrumental in convincing government that it could actually be accomplished, and none of them had anything other than their SF backgrounds to base that on)I chose not to cover all aspects of this issue though, both for brevity and because I really am asking the question why be so dismissive?' Whether older SF was right' or wrong' about the future really doesn't affect anything now, does it? So then, how come the angst? Ashamed? Unable to match it? Lowering the bar? Trying to make it less scary to publishers so we can sneak in through the literary' transom?It puzzles me and boggles a bit.

Hematite

Chemical formula: α-Fe₂O₃

This mineral has been found at the landing zone of Opportunity.

Olivine

Chemical formula: (Mg,Fe)₂SiO₄

This mineral has been found in Gusev Crater.

Salt

Calcium carbonate, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride and perchlorate have been found by the Phoenix lander (http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/09_09_pr.php). Chloride, perhaps table salt, have also been found by Mars Odyssey.

Open Issues

• How exactly can iron, magnesium, etc. be extracted out of these minerals? What we need here are simple processes, allowing the exploitation with limited chemical and energy resources on Mars. The processing should be strictly lo-tech.