Cold Atmospheric Plasma for Perchlorate Removal and Water Purification in Mars ISRU Applications

Mars soil contains perchlorates at concentrations approximately 700,000 times the WHO safe limit for drinking water. We analyze cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) as an in-situ perchlorate remediation technology and propose a complete 4-stage water purification system — sediment separation, CAP treatment, reverse osmosis, and AI-verified quality control — requiring no chemical imports from Earth. The system operates on 50 W of solar power, has a hardware mass of approximately 2 kg, and can be constructed from components costing USD 500. An autonomous AI quality control module provides non-human-supervised decision support for water safety certification. This represents the lowest-cost, lightest, and chemically simplest approach to Martian water purification currently documented.