Extracting Water from the Martian Environment

Tonani, Lydia Ellen

Student Work

Extracting Water from the Martian Environment

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For many years, space organizations have studied, planned, and prepared for a crewed mission to Mars. Although scientists have found water on Mars as frozen brine and water ice, the absence of an abundant potable water supply is a fundamental obstacle to crew survival. The Mars Phoenix Lander found evidence of permafrost only a few cm below the regolith surface and found that perchlorate was five times more abundant than chloride. Therefore, this project aimed to develop a water treatment method that converts frozen perchlorate brine into potable water. I selected progressive freeze concentration as the water purification method to achieve this goal and designed a prototype capable of sustaining the process in Mars’s conditions. Experiments used a one-molal magnesium perchlorate starting solution, and all experiments successfully produced a treated product of reduced salt concentration along with a residual brine of elevated salt concentration.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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