so power on Mars is going to be very
important and it will have to have the
ability to run the microwave oven and
along with the oxygenator and everything
else that we’re going to need to survive
you need power every civilization needs
power it’s what we fight wars over it’s
important we can do it in a couple of
ways one we can use all ourselves we
have very thin sheet solar panels that
we can create now that are very light
that’s just like a thin sheet of plastic
but solar energy on Mars is a bit thin
Mars is solar irradiance is about half
that of the earth so on a beautiful
sunny day in the middle of summer at the
equator on Mars you’re only getting
about 60% of the sunlight that we get on
earth what is even more worrisome is the
fact that it could periodically be
blacked out by dust storms that would
leave you without any power dust storms
are an issue on Mars they’re visible
from space we can see that Mars just
kind of turns into a hazy red ball the
solar power will only work for a little
bit until the dust settles on top of the
surface so ultimately solar is
relatively inefficient on Mars
however it’s simple and easy to use well
we first land on Mars we’ll probably put
up a lot of solar panels one of the most
important resources is water now there’s
water to be found everywhere on Mars in
the soil at at least five percent by
weight levels the reason we’re
interested in waters it’s not just
because we’re gonna melt it and brush
our teeth with it which ok we can do
that
but also because water is made up of
hydrogen and oxygen and those are the
two components of rocket fuel using
Mars’s atmosphere and plentiful supply
of water plus energy makes your rocket
fuel and you do that with a chemical
reaction called the Sabatier reaction
and so you break apart the hydrogen and
the oxygen and now you’ve got this fuel
source and that can help sustain you and
keep you in this place other type of
resources could be nuclear you know by
using plutonium or small reactors you
can actually generate like we do on
earth right now we know that we can take
plutonium 238 we use that in our
spacecraft
you know curiosity is powered by
plutonium 238 thing is you can have a
reactor capable of powering a city that
you actually can put into space and and
set up on another planet it doesn’t have
to be gigantic eventually as we grow on
Mars and we create significant size
habitats and we bring more people in
nuclear power is probably our answer
important and it will have to have the
ability to run the microwave oven and
along with the oxygenator and everything
else that we’re going to need to survive
you need power every civilization needs
power it’s what we fight wars over it’s
important we can do it in a couple of
ways one we can use all ourselves we
have very thin sheet solar panels that
we can create now that are very light
that’s just like a thin sheet of plastic
but solar energy on Mars is a bit thin
Mars is solar irradiance is about half
that of the earth so on a beautiful
sunny day in the middle of summer at the
equator on Mars you’re only getting
about 60% of the sunlight that we get on
earth what is even more worrisome is the
fact that it could periodically be
blacked out by dust storms that would
leave you without any power dust storms
are an issue on Mars they’re visible
from space we can see that Mars just
kind of turns into a hazy red ball the
solar power will only work for a little
bit until the dust settles on top of the
surface so ultimately solar is
relatively inefficient on Mars
however it’s simple and easy to use well
we first land on Mars we’ll probably put
up a lot of solar panels one of the most
important resources is water now there’s
water to be found everywhere on Mars in
the soil at at least five percent by
weight levels the reason we’re
interested in waters it’s not just
because we’re gonna melt it and brush
our teeth with it which ok we can do
that
but also because water is made up of
hydrogen and oxygen and those are the
two components of rocket fuel using
Mars’s atmosphere and plentiful supply
of water plus energy makes your rocket
fuel and you do that with a chemical
reaction called the Sabatier reaction
and so you break apart the hydrogen and
the oxygen and now you’ve got this fuel
source and that can help sustain you and
keep you in this place other type of
resources could be nuclear you know by
using plutonium or small reactors you
can actually generate like we do on
earth right now we know that we can take
plutonium 238 we use that in our
spacecraft
you know curiosity is powered by
plutonium 238 thing is you can have a
reactor capable of powering a city that
you actually can put into space and and
set up on another planet it doesn’t have
to be gigantic eventually as we grow on
Mars and we create significant size
habitats and we bring more people in
nuclear power is probably our answer
Please follow and like us: