The Case for Colonizing Mars by Robert Zubrin From Ad Astra
July/August 1996 Mars Is The New World Among extraterrestrial
bodies in our solar system, Mars is singular in that it
possesses all the raw materials required to support not only
life, but a new branch of human civilization. This uniqueness is
illustrated most clearly if we contrast Mars with the Earth's
Moon, the most frequently cited alternative location for
extraterrestrial human colonization. In contrast to the Moon,
Mars is rich in carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, all in
biologically readily accessible forms such as carbon dioxide
gas, nitrogen gas, and water ice and permafrost. Carbon,
nitrogen, and hydrogen are only present on the Moon in parts per
million quantities, much like gold in seawater. Oxygen is
abundant on the Moon, but only in tightly bound oxides such as
silicon dioxide (SiO2), ferrous oxide (Fe2O3), magnesium oxide
(MgO), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3), which require very high
energy processes to reduce. Current knowledge indic