Turn iron into rust

[Lelle501]

I was wondering why there is no mechanic that turns iron into rust. Iron slowly oxidizes and turn into rust when oxygen and water is present. Salt speeds this process up.

Given rust and salt can make oxygen in the rust deoxidizer in the game, having a mechanism where iron (refined or as ore) left in water slowly makes a byproduct of rust while eating away at the iron source would make sense as an early-game way on certain planets to produce oxygen. Leaving iron in saltwater or brine could additionally speed up this process.

Now obviously in the real world this process requires oxygen to happen, making it questionable as a source of oxygen production if you have to "manufacture" rust with oxygen in the first place. I would let it be up to the developers to determine if such a mechanic was implemented to what extent it would require oxygen, and/or if oxygen should even be consumed in the process of turning iron into rust to make it balanced enough.

With that being said, I imagine the mechanism could be implemented the same way things like polluted water slowly turns into polluted oxygen under certain conditions.

[hydragyro]

In real life, iron can be reacted with water to form "rust" (iron oxides) and hydrogen, under the right conditions. This reaction is extremely slow (at room temperature) but does not require air; the oxygen comes from the water itself.

In-game, this would mean something similar to an algae terrarium: supply water and iron, and it produces small amounts of rust, hydrogen, and polluted water. Heat would make it faster and/or more efficient, in the same way light affects algae terrariums.