Mars has oil and gold

Originally posted by raj10463
I already have a feeling there is crude beneath mars. Finding evidence of life can prove this. There are also rare earth minerals, especially gold. The way we get it is by drilling and then pump it to container ships in space. The ships never enter either atmosphere instead they dock at pumps that take the oil to and from the surface.

Mars may have some energy source but is exreemly unlikley mars had organic life long enough to produce fossil fuels. Gold and frozen water on the other hand is very likely.

This is so ridiculous...

Just as an FYI, if the moon (much closer and easier to get to than Mars) was made of solid pure gold, it would still NOT be profitable to mine the moon for gold.

The amount of money it costs to get anything capable of getting those resources back here to earth is far too great, unless there is some mineral 1,000,000 times more valuable than gold, it isn't worth the time to mine anything and bring it back here.

As it stands now at least... if we could develop a space elevator (or a few) that could possible cut costs dramatically and make it economically viable for such operations.

But for now, and in the near future, it would be a massive financial loss to mine gold or oil on the Moon even, let alone Mars. Someone obviously didn't do their homework.

Originally posted by Speckle
Oil and gold are all that matter. On this planet anyway. From what I have learned, gold is in all places , a result of the big bang. Oil, on the other hand takes a right condition, and death of a lot of organisms to produce something useful. Is this post a troll?

Gold was not created by the big bang, but instead from exploding stars (supernovae). The only elements present after the big bang were the three lightest ones -- hydrogen, helium, and lithium. The fourth lightest element (beryllium) was also formed, but in an unstable isotope.

There was no gold in the universe (or other heavy elements) until stars there were stars -- or, more accurately, until stars died in nova and supernova explosions.

I think it would be cheaper to develop getter ways of getting energy from the sun and wind than hauling oil from mars. Can't people break free from the conditioning we have been taught for our need of oil and gas If we are going to fix this problem the last thing we need to do is build more rockets.

Originally posted by raj10463
robots... they are doing it here on earth. and an oil rig is not that difficult to blast into space, especially if its in pieces. And getting there and back is just a madder of gaining volocity and then floating the rest of the way, remember the ships never land they stay in space.

Seriously you don't have an idea what you are talking about look how long it took to build the ISS and that's only in orbit above us.

I feel the OP is full of hot air..but i have no links or evidence to support this.

So can i make a post with a title that states it as a fact?

This was a disappointing waste of my time.

Posted like it was fact, and not someone's sci fi view.

Originally posted by rickymouse

I think it would be cheaper to develop getter ways of getting energy from the sun and wind than hauling oil from mars. Can't people break free from the conditioning we have been taught for our need of oil and gas

If we are going to fix this problem the last thing we need to do is build more rockets.

I totally agree. Not only cheaper but better for the environment as well.

reply to post by raj10463


Just wait until the Mars pipeline is put into play......

Originally posted by Saint Exupery
Sadly, if Mars was made of nothing but oil & gold, it still would not be economical to get it and bring it back.

Here's what I mean:

Let's suppose the oil is not on Mars, but much closer - orbiting the Earth just a few hundred kilometers up
(orbital speed at that altitude is ~27,500 kph, so no, you cannot use balloons to reach orbit).

No need to drill - let's just imagine that it is just orbiting up there, waiting for us to come and get it. All we have to do is launch an empty oil barrel, fill it up, bring it down to Earth to sell.

An empty oil barrel masses ~20 kilograms.

The cost of launching 1 kilogram to orbit is ~$20,000.

Thus it would cost ~$400,000 to launch that empty oil barrel into space.

If we then fill it up and bring it back to Earth, we can then sell that barrel of oil for the current market value, which is ~$100.

$400,000 spent for a $100 return.

So you see, the problem with all schemes for mining space (whether its the Moon or mars or asteroids, or maybe just manufacturing things in free-fall) is that the cost of getting the equipment up there is way too high. In the above example, even if we could reduce the launch cost by a factor of 1,000 it still would be too expensive to make the effort pay.

Don't get me wrong - I want space colonies. I want orbital factories. I want to have my 100th birthday party on the Moon (you're invited, Raj) - But the high cost of payload-to-orbit is a huge problem. There are good proposals out there for systems that would be very cheap to operate compared to present-day rocket technology (Maglifter, StarTram, Skyhooks and Space Elevators), but the front-end cost (what it takes to build & setup these things) would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and would take 10+ years to develop. It takes resources, foresight and determination to invest in the future like this, and the financial rewards would literally be beyond imagination.

Sadly, neither the governments nor the corporate consortia that have the resources possess the foresight & determination to make this bright future a reality. I don't know how to wake them up. Ironically, shouting something like, "Oil & gold on Mars!" is the sort of thing to do it - but we need something that is real and attainable - not just motivational.
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You took the words out of my mouth and then some. The thing of it is this: we're only going to seriously start colonizing planets for two reasons: (1) Overpopulation of the planet (2) Military advantage (whatever advantage that might be, though I'm struggling to come up with a reason). All other resource, and commerce reasons could be either solved here on Earth or would cost too much based on the reasons you have outlined. The only other reason for going to space is (3) pure curiosity and vision--which is predicated on so many other variables related to the randomness of human psychology and motives--we could just as easily be colonizing a planet tomorrow, as we could be 200 years from now---or never. And most world leaders aren't planning space colonizing mission to other planets, mainly because they're to preoccupied with equally complex political, socioeconomic problems here on Earth. You can't have a stable colony on Mars, if you can't even keep humanity stable on a planet damn-near suited for their success. And that last fact is actually kind of sad, considering how much potential humanity could have if we would just stop focusing on mindlessly idiotic crap--like religious wars, meaningless political arguments not based in any real fact, and pointless conflicts that usually have nothing to with underlying socioeconomic problems.

Originally posted by Awen24
...of course, this all depends on Mars actually having oil.
...or actually having life.

...and then the bigger question regarding that life would be do they have a group of people living on top of all that gold and oil that need 'liberating'?

That Martian chief might just have some 'weapons of mass destruction' in that cave.

- Lee

The only way oil would exist on Mars is if millions of years ago it harboured organic life, which the evidence is slim for. If there were any valuable commodities on Mars it has been defined as a "province of all mankind" by the Outer Space Treaty, which means no-one can claim ownership of it. I doubt it would be left at that though.

Outer Space Treaty

Funny post, this is how Mars/Moon harvesting/drilling/refining will work;

Drill on Mars/The Moon, that which is found on Mars/The Moon will be used there. Factories will be built on Mars/The Moon, want to make some rocket fuel? The rocket fuel factory will be built on Mars/The Moon, that's the only feasible way it will happen. So don't expect any transportation from one body to another in any great quantity to ever take place it would not be economically worthwhile.

We as a people, species, need to build bases/factories on The Moon & Mars, only men with vision have had this foresight, namely J.F.K. & George W. Bush. Can you name another president that had this in mind? Add them to the list. I simply look forward to the future of The Moon & Mars, when politics is set on the side and the future of humanity is pushed to the limits beyond our blue marble.

Both Opportunity and Curiousity have found evidences of ancient sea beds, Opportunity at Endeavour crater, Curiousity at Gale crater, where there was a presence of gypsum detected. Sea beds are a good place for the process of oil forming from low life forms, mostly decayed plants and bacteria, and let's not forget the controversial meteorites thought to contain microbial fossils.

The OP may only think there could be oil on Mars, (and of course gas) but it is something that is taken seriously as here,

www.jmcgowan.com...

And that BTW, is a NASA document!

My biggest question towards this thread is how did it get stars and flags? Sorry to say but this was a poorly done thread and was also a complete let down.

None of the ideas you presented are realistic in any way, nor would anyone with ungodly amounts of money give a venture like this a second look. even as sci fi this would be far fetched in the way of being productive.

Am I glad I read thru some of the replies to this post!
I was beginning to wonder how someone got all those dinosaurs to Mars so long ago.
Of course I have come to the opinion, and it is just that, that crude oil may not be from dead anlimals after all.
Either that or Saturn's moon Titan once had life. I now has an abundance of heavy hydrocarbons. The same stuff we call petroleum.

Originally posted by malchir
Funny post, this is how Mars/Moon harvesting/drilling/refining will work;

Drill on Mars/The Moon, that which is found on Mars/The Moon will be used there. Factories will be built on Mars/The Moon, want to make some rocket fuel? The rocket fuel factory will be built on Mars/The Moon, that's the only feasible way it will happen. So don't expect any transportation from one body to another in any great quantity to ever take place it would not be economically worthwhile.

We as a people, species, need to build bases/factories on The Moon & Mars, only men with vision have had this foresight, namely J.F.K. & George W. Bush. Can you name another president that had this in mind? Add them to the list. I simply look forward to the future of The Moon & Mars, when politics is set on the side and the future of humanity is pushed to the limits beyond our blue marble.

Actually, I think that what Jimmy Carter stated on the voyager plaque/record was much more both profound, and (forgive the pun) down to Earth.

"We cast this message into the cosmos ... Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe."

G.W.Bush didn't come close to that, in fact he was talking the bull. In 2004 it would have cost £800 billion just to put a little pinky on Mars had anything been near ready. It was also something of a Faux Pas, when much of what he spoke of in technological space achievements was about robotics which have been pretty successful, and not something done on the ground by humans. Let NASA take their time, no 2020's and get it right for humans to be on Mars. Mars ain't going anywhere so soon.

]reply to post by raj10463

There are also rare earth minerals

Well we wouldnt be able to call them rare "earth" minerals anymore then. lol

I just heard on Nat Geo that mining resources from other planets, with today's technology, would cost 800 billion to 1.2 trillion dollars. It was crazy what all would have to go into it.

reply to post by milkyway12


Thats not bad, its like half the price from a few years ago.

Just wait until spacex brings back one of those mineral rich asteroids. Well be mining them by decades end once they discover just how much money they will make.