Future Mars prospectors will likely find mineral riches in some unusual settings, say planetary scientists studying the different ways valuable metals might have been concentrated on the red planet.
On Earth, surface waters, ground waters and even chemicals left by living things play major roles in leaching, concentrating and depositing valuable metals and minerals like iron, gold, silver, nickel, copper and many more.
But on Mars there are no oceans or surface waters; no microorganisms either. What’s more, the planet is so cold that even groundwater is frozen as permafrost and functions as little more than another mineral in the ground.
So where does a starving miner look on Mars for usable quantities of ore?
February 22nd, 2010
Mining Mars? Where’s the Ore? Discovery
February 2nd, 2010
Aldrin: ‘Mars Is The Next Frontier For Humankind’ Discovery
This certainly isn’t a surprise, considering Buzz Aldrin has been advocating manned missions to destinations other than the moon for some time, but it’s certainly worth hearing what the second man on the moon has to say about today’s announcement about NASA’s shake-up.
In a nutshell, Aldrin supports President Obama’s revised vision for NASA space exploration. This means canceling a return trip to the lunar surface and concentrating on other destinations first, pushing the envelope of human endeavor.