The idea of building settlements on Mars is a popular goal of billionaires, space agencies and interplanetary enthusiasts.

But construction demands materials, and we can't ship it all from Earth: it cost US$243 million just to send NASA's one ton Perseverance Rover to the Red Planet.

Unless we're building a settlement for ants, we'll need much, much more stuff. So how do we get it there?

CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellow and Swinburne alum Dr. Deddy Nababan has been pondering this question for years. His answer lies in the Martian dirt, known as regolith.

"Sending metals to Mars from Earth might be feasible, but it's not economical. Can you imagine bringing tons of metals to Mars? It's just not practical," he says.
"Instead, we can use what's available on Mars—it's called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU)."

More specifically, Dr. Nababan is looking at astrometallurgy—making metals in space.