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Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#12I was going to suggest we should hold competitions for turning Earth's CO2 in sugar as well, but then I remembered you can just plant seeds.
And wait millions of years for that plants to turn in to coal and oil, drill oil for $$$
I'm not so sure the first Mars colonists will wait that long. If humanity's Terran history is any indicator, they'll ferment every last drop of it into space hooch.
Hmm, I wonder if there's a market for that...
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#13Who is the target audience for this? Seems like you should solicit research proposals and provide grant funding to academic or industrial research groups to actually do the work. They can't just work for free in hopes they get 250k or 1M...
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#14Definitely thought this was going to be about the Mars Bar factory CO2 output, which would have been cool if they could reuse that in the product they're making.
How much would people pay for a Mars bar that was produced on planet Mars?
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#15Who is the target audience for this? Seems like you should solicit research proposals and provide grant funding to academic or industrial research groups to actually do the work. They can't just work for free in hopes they get 250k or 1M...
There are already grants and proposals for similar research. This competition targets two groups that aren't well-represented by that process:
1. Individuals (hobbyists) who will work for free in hopes of winning.
2. Well-funded academics and industry R&D who will bill their costs against their employers, who hope to profit from the publicity generated by the public contest.
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#16If someone can figure out CO2 -> C6H12O6, it's probably worth more than $1mm.
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was going to ask about the availability of oxygen and sunlight.
Oxygen? Don't you mean water? Most plants need some oxygen for the root network, but photosynthesis produces an excess of oxygen and doesn't require it to run.
Wait for real? My highschool biology class lied to me.
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#18I was going to suggest we should hold competitions for turning Earth's CO2 in sugar as well, but then I remembered you can just plant seeds.
Photosynthesis is only 0.1% to %2 efficient, while solar cells are over %20. So if you come up with a way to convert electricity into sugar that is at least %10 efficient, you are ahead. Not to mention that farming causes habitat destruction, and fertilizer and pesticides are also harmful.
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oxygen? Don't you mean water? Most plants need some oxygen for the root network, but photosynthesis produces an excess of oxygen and doesn't require it to run.
Wait for real? My highschool biology class lied to me.
Didn't your highschool biology teach you that photosynthesis is 6CO₂ + 6H₂O = C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂? That's what I remember from school. Takes light, water and carbon dioxide, makes glucose and oxygen.
Re: Nasa launches $1M competition to turn Mars CO2 into sugar
#20I was going to suggest we should hold competitions for turning Earth's CO2 in sugar as well, but then I remembered you can just plant seeds.
I think it was a sleight-of-hand move by NASA to spur the development of decarbonizarion technologies.
Yeah, comes off as close to a call for spin-off tech as you can get without explicitly saying "climate change"...