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General Discussion => Q&A Section => Topic started by: rmza7 on 07/13/2017 01:38 pm

Title: Ammonia Synthesis on Mars Q & A
Post by: rmza7 on 07/13/2017 01:38 pm

Is NASA planning to synthesize ammonia using bacteria, or will it use the Nitrogen from Mars's atmosphere for the Haber process?

Title: Re: Ammonia Synthesis on Mars Q & A
Post by: Lar on 07/14/2017 12:28 am

Ammonia is one of the top 20 key chemicals if you're starting up large scale industrial chemical synthesis, but does it have a specific early on use that would cause NASA to want to synthesize it early?

Title: Re: Ammonia Synthesis on Mars Q & A
Post by: rmza7 on 07/14/2017 01:02 am

Wouldn't they need ammonia for plant growth on Mars, and also to use for nitrate synthesis?

Title: Re: Ammonia Synthesis on Mars Q & A
Post by: Lar on 07/14/2017 02:43 am

And many other things. But I am not aware that it's an early focus of ISRU research by NASA.. That would be propellant.

You don't need a lot of NEW ammonia (or other nitrogen bearing chemicals) unless you're vastly increasing your biomass, I would think. Initial food production will use nitrogen from the waste stream.

It's a good question. ALL the key early feedstock chemicals have to be found, or synthesized, if you want a robust chemical infrastructure. Many important organics have some nitrogen in them ( for example, ABS, perhaps the most important plastic of all, since LEGO elements are made from it :)  ).