At 10:18 PM 12/17/2014, rcs@xmission.com wrote:

The article pointed out that perchlorate ClO4- is common on the Mars' surface,

Hmmm... This gives us half of a good solid rocket fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_perchlorate_composite_propellant SpaceX claims to have picked methane as a rocket fuel because they want to go to Mars, and there's methane on Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_%28rocket_engine%29