Spain’s Tekniker is working with ESA on a piece of equipment that could help make future Mars missions more economical. To survive on Mars, future colonists will need to use all available resources as efficiently as possible. This also means recycling wherever possible, and for travel between Earth and Mars, in time the fuel for spacecraft return journeys should be produced on Mars.
It is very useful for landing structures on the Moon, where the combination of low gravity and the razor-sharp rocks thrown up on landing pose a threat to incoming devices.