652102 external_news 1635278282 1635948857 New research published in Nature Communications estimates a cost of $8 billion to ship the required 30 tons of methane and liquid oxygen to Mars to use as fuel for a single launch with a 500-ton payload. With financial support from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, the authors of the new paper have come up with a very different solution, in which key ingredients needed to produce the propellent can be sourced directly on the Red Planet. Pamela Peralta-Yahya, associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is a co-author of the study. The research was also covered at Space.com, Futurism.com, SlashGear, Daily Mail, The Weather Channel, Universe Today, The Hill, New Atlas,  IGN.com, and The Science Times. 

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