Physics Seminar
Wednesday, September 1, 2004, 4:30 pm
Willet Science Center 101

Matthew J. Marone
Department of Physics
Mercer University

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)
 Experiment for Mars Exploration
(What I did on my summer vacation)

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) can best be described as “living off the land.”  In this case the land happens to be Mars.  NASA is very interested in finding ways to use local resources for the production of materials for life support, construction and propulsion.  The Martian atmosphere and soil is known to contain many of the important material we would need for a manned mission.  I will discuss a few of the ideas for extracting these materials.  The research atmosphere and the mission of NASA will also be discussed.