With the world waking up to the possibility of sustaining human life on Mars, an essential consideration is the energy supply. The average amount of power that the typical U.S. consumer uses here on Earth is around 10,900 kWh of electricity per year. Sustaining a colony on the Red Planet would require much more, seeing as the power capacity would need to cover systems like life support in the form of an oxygen supply. There are several viable options that are explained below.
Sustaining life on Mars would require vast amounts of energy
One of the most vital indicators of a civilization’s development is its access to energy. To sustain life on Mars, including early exploratory missions, electricity generation will mean the difference between life and death. It’s essential to power life support systems and ISRU (in-situ resource utilization). Some of the functions, such as melting ice or smelting ore, only require thermal energy, which is relatively simple to generate, but many others will need electrical energy.
In terms of ISRU on Mars, which is the process of utilizing local resources, it’s important to reduce the reliance on supplies transported from Earth to support human life. On Mars, ISRU would involve extracting water from ice, producing oxygen and fuel, and generating building materials.
There are other energy technologies for application in space currently being developed, like a system inspired by nature that harvests solar energy in space and turns it into lasers capable of transmitting beams across vast distances in space.
What are the 2 energy options available for early expeditions to Mars?
The initial exploratory expeditions to the Red Planet will probably utilize solar or nuclear energy, or perhaps a combination of the two.
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the best option for initial missions because the supply of electricity is reliable, long-lasting, and powerful. One of the benefits is that nuclear power reactors generate a lot of heat, which can be utilized in ISRU functions.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center is currently working on a prototype 1 kW Kilopower Nuclear Reactor that’s intended to support human outposts on both Mars and the Moon. However, nuclear energy may not be the best solution in the long term, as fissionable materials like uranium and thorium are difficult to produce and refine even on Earth.
In addition to the complexities of supplying the material needed for nuclear electricity generation, reactors are complex systems that require an industrial base for building and maintenance. Unless a significant technological breakthrough is made, this factor makes nuclear electricity generation a challenging endeavor.
Solar energy
A team of NASA-sponsored researchers and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes that solar energy is a viable source of power for life on Mars. At a location between 0° and 40° north of the Martian equator, a 100 by 100-meter solar panel array could theoretically produce 100 kW of power.
Numerous solar-powered probes have been dispatched to Mars, but there are some challenges with solar electricity generation systems. Large installations would have to be built, and the sunlight on Mars is only 43% as strong as on Earth. Mars’s atmosphere attenuates sunlight and dust storms also cause long interruptions to generation. Areas far from Mars’s equator have seasonal variations in sunlight, making them viable for only parts of the Martian year.
2 Options for electrical power generation in the longer term
Wind and geothermal generation systems are also viable, but those would likely be installed at a later stage of exploration or colonization.
Geothermal power
Sourcing geothermal power would involve drilling into the planet’s crust to reach a hot water reservoir. There are several geothermal options on Mars, such as the Cerebus plains, its Northwestern Tharsis region, and the canyons of Valles Marineris. Geothermal electricity production is not a good option for exploratory expeditions but it’s viable for sedentary colonies.
Wind energy
Wind power systems are the least viable of the energy options on Mars. The planet has a low atmospheric pressure of just 0.6% of that on Earth. Even wind speeds of more than 100km per hour exert aerodynamic forces similar to those of a light breeze on Earth.
In more news about space, scientists have figured out a way to beam solar power to Earth from space via a laser for the first time ever and the implications for harnessing energy are exciting.