Plastics on other worlds

[domesticated om]

Assuming humans colonize another world, where will all the plastic products come from? Is there a way for a martian settlement to manufacture it (for example)?

Assuming plastics were not an option at all, then what would replace it?

[spidergoat]

Adobe?

[domesticated om]

Haha

--- ok seriously though......think of items like syringes and disposable packaging - such as the kind of stuff used to package food.
The only two scenarios I could foresee would either be:
1. import from earth combined with strict recycling (absurd because plastics would become too expensive)
2. use of an alternative (what?)

[inzomnia]

Plastic is widely used because of its several advantages such as relatively light, formable / easy to be molded, cheap (because of its abundancy on earth), etc. However it has also disadvantages, for example: has weak strength, can't stand high temperature, etc.

If there will be 'other world colonization', I guess it depends on what materials are available in that other world, and what for do you need the plastic. In some applications, plastics can be subtituted by metal, glass, ceramics, etc. To replace plastic, maybe those materials (metal, glass, etc) can be combined to form composites in which the combined properties are desirable (e.g. similar to plastic properties).

To answer this question in more specific way, you should give an example, for which purpose is a plastic needed.

[cosmictraveler]

wait until they develop Marsabic, a new material that can only be produced on Mars! :rolleyes:

[ElectricFetus]

If there is hydrogen and carbon you can make plastics, it would be very energy intensive though. Mars has Carbon dioxide air and Ice: no resource problem.

[spidergoat]

Assuming we are living on another world and growing food, there will be cellulose for packaging. Basically, paper. I would think that would be the least of our problems.