Mars iron may be used to build future bases on the Red Planet

The rover Opportunity has found elemental iron - a key ingredient of steel - peppered across the Martian surface as a result of collisions with iron-rich meteorites, which may be used for building future bases on the Red Planet.

According to a report in New Scientist, the find means that future colonizers of Mars needn’t worry about lugging materials from Earth to build their bases, as the most widely used building material on Earth, steel, could be manufactured there as well.

The dry conditions and lack of atmospheric oxygen mean that the stuff has not rusted, according to Geoffrey Landis of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, US. (ANI)

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