It is not a joke but a viable plan when we need to colonize Mars one day.
First thing first, why we need Electrolyzers for the colonization?
Electrolyzers can produce many useful products that human needs. In a previous post, Electrolyzer Store introduced that a water electrolyzer can turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. Similarly, a CO2 electrolyzer can turn water and carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, formic acid, and other hydrocarbon species. Among these products, oxygen is essential for human body to stay alive. The rest products can serve as energy fuels for our houses and vehicles, or as basic feedstocks for important industrial reactions that produce products from A to Z to meet our daily needs, such as plastic, soap, perfume, fertilizer…you name it.
So, can we run Electrolyzers on Mars?
The answer is Yes. Mars seems to be the perfect planet for running electrolyzers. First, the feed stocks are simply water and carbon dioxide, both can be found on Mars: NASA showed proofs that 95.32% of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, and water exists on the surface in ice form. Furthermore, to run electrolyzers we need electricity. If we setup solar farms on the surface of Mars, we can solve this problem. Last, ore resources on Mars contain silver, iron, nickel, tin, bismuth, titanium, and copper, which can be used for making catalysts and electrolyzer building blocks.
In near future, by running electolyzers, we can transform Mars into our second home.