from NASA's expressnews:
Bringing Mars into the Iron Age - NASA scientists are developing ways to mine and process iron ore for energy production on Mars, creating technologies needed to support a human colony. A new idea, incorporating some techniques that are thousands of years old, uses Mars' iron to build antennas capable of receiving microwave power from space. Full story:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad03mar99_1.htm