Mars, Elon Musk’s favorite red planet, and a wonderous place that entices humanity’s primal instinct for exploration. With new missions planned, both with robots and humans, colonization seems but a matter of time. Scientists are already imagining the amazing discoveries that are just waiting to be discovered. However, I would like to concentrate on the tools and technicality of creating a thriving human colony there; its energy grid. Without electricity, none of the exploration, science and great economic benefits would arise. Mars is home to a much harder environment than our planet Earth, but it is also a place much richer in resources. A balance between adversity and hope. The perfect place for innovation and human achievement. As a result, giving hope of achieving a project like no other, an infrastructure project never done before, an energy grid in another planet.
SOLAR PANELS
Renewable energy would play a key central role in creating a stable life, economy and energy grid. Solar panels being the star of the show. Mars receives only half of the Earth’s solar radiation, but it has a much thinner atmosphere, making it much easier for solar panels to harness the light for electricity. Nonetheless as it happens often on Mars, everything is a double-edged sword. The thinner atmosphere will increase the panels efficiency, but they will be exposed to much more UV lights, making their degradation loss of efficiency during the years much more acute than on Earth. Thankfully for this we have already the technology to mitigate it; our solar panels on our satellites. They are already lightweight and UV resistant and much more efficient than our commercial one’s. This will save cosmic amounts in R&D, fuel costs, and manpower.
Solar panels must have some sort of self-cleaning mechanism, for two main reasons:
Its harsh environment full of dust particles will affect the panel’s production. A valuable resource like water is out of the question to be used. As every drop will be used for human consumption and agriculture. It must pe preserved and recycled, as best it could. As a result, the self-cleaning mechanism will be done through vibration. Options like air pressure cleaning, are also ruled out because cleaning this way might create scratches on the panels. We did not take them millions of Km away from earth just to not properly take care of them
The last thing to consider is thermal management. Temperature on Mars can vary by as much as 100 degrees from day to night. So, their design and material choice must bear in mind these extremes.
Geothermal energy
Another hard challenge ahead, but we are going to Mars we are not worried about hard 😊.
Except for all the weather and environmental related problems, geothermal has one more. It’s rocky terrain. More advancement is needed here, in order to make drilling more efficient and less costly. As Mars’ thin atmosphere makes heat dissipation very quick, our geothermal source must be deep to be as efficient as possible. This will be a much harder endeavor than installing and maintaining solar panels. However, unlike solar, geothermal can produce a constant load of electricity making it more reliable, less intermittent production and much easier to forecast demand. The reliability of constant energy production makes this a worthwhile endeavor.
Wing Energy
Wind Energy is very promising for two main reasons. Its low-density atmosphere and much lower gravity can make winds much stronger and thus have a more abundant fuel for the large turbines. The usual challenges of hard Marsian environment remain. So, their designs, just like everything, must adapt and overcome the red planet. However, its implementation will depend more on where the colony will be built. Yes, Mars has very strong winds, but not everywhere. The colony will be established based on many parameters, such as accessibility to water and Earth, shelter, resources and many other things. Wind, even if in theory it can work very well, might not be implemented, due to the location of the colony. Victim to a possible geographical choice.
Nuclear Energy
Just the name, makes you scared, but Nuclear will be the key to conquer the inhospitable planet. No, we’re not going to nuke it like Elon Musk said but use it to get there faster and build small modular reactors. Nuclear will be key for several reasons:
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It will be used to fill in the base load (lowest amount of demand of electricity during the day) - It will not be intermittent so it will save space and money, by avoiding bringing additional batteries and production facilities
- A nuclear reactor can have a dual purpose, it can be used as a propellor to reach Mars faster and once it is there, repurposed for energy use. Becoming even more economically viable, by saving additional space, and using the R&D money much more efficiently.
The possible mayor drawbacks will be nuclear waste and finding nuclear fuel on Mars. It’s hard conditions will make safely storing nuclear waste a problem, so more advanced safety measures during the construction must be implemented. Although Mars is rumored to be rich in nuclear fuel, more research is needed to confirm this.
Although we are probably decades or a century ahead before an eventual colony is established on Mars, thinking about creating something beautiful and useful in a harsh environment has tangible benefits, here on Earth. The technologies we invent and thinking outside the box have all sorts of sweet fruits in the form of innovation and driving costs down for current technologies. Until then see you on Earth.