Colorado School of Mines expert contributes as NASA plans Mars exploration

An expert from the Colorado School of Mines was featured recently in an article for Space.com, where he talked about intriguing possibilities for mining on Mars.

Angel Abbud-Madrid of the school’s Center for Space Resources told the online magazine that the possibility of exploring and colonizing Mars could be easier if those explorers could get resources from the Martian landscape.

"The use of local resources is pivotal for our future human exploration of Mars," Abbud-Madrid told the magazine. "Either we bypass our reliance on them for an expensive, one-time trip carrying all needed supplies from Earth…or we incorporate resource utilization for a more affordable, multi-mission, and sustainable exploration of the Red Planet.”

Developing those kinds of resources on-planet is a prospect NASA is greatly interested in. The U.S. space program recently held its First Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. NASA will rely on experts like Abbud-Madrid, who participated in the workshop.

"This was not only a sign that NASA has decided to take an extended, multi-mission approach to explore the Red Planet, but also that Martian resources are now considered the 'enabling element' for a sustainable human exploration campaign," Abbud-Madrid told Space.com.