What do you mean by “my work is journeying to the centre of the earth and maybe one day to mars”?

Question: What do you mean by "my work is journeying to the centre of the earth and maybe one day to mars"?
- Keywords:
  career,
  future,
  mars
Asked by to Simon on 13 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
- Simon Redfern answered on 13 Jun 2014:
  
  I’m talking about the research I do on mineral structures. One project is investigating the properties of iron in Earth’s innermost core. Another is looking at how the varieties of light and heavy oxygen and hydrogen in minerals on Mars tell us about the chemistry of the waters that they crystallised in.
- anon answered on 14 Jun 2014:
  
  My work is definitely stuck on earth at the moment but it could be useful in space travel – my molecular sponges could soak up all the carbon dioxide you breathe out so that the spaceship doesn’t fill up with CO2 and you don’t suffocate!

Question: What do you mean by "my work is journeying to the centre of the earth and maybe one day to mars"?