The same kind of energy released by atomic bombs will be what helps humanity during the colonization of Mars and the Moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently published a series of prospective technical documents on space exploration. They confirm that nuclear fission will be the main source of energy on the ground of the red planet.
When an atom splits into two or more nuclei upon the impact of a subatomic particle, it releases a large amount of energy. This process is called nuclear fission. The concept was used to create the first atomic bombs. It is also one of the main ways to produce energy free of polluting gases.
According to NASA’s staff of expertstechnology on Mars should be powered by nuclear fission. Other more conventional energy alternatives such as solar and wind were also considered, but the fission option is the most likely to be successful when considering the hostile Martian environment and the time it takes to transport supplies. “Nuclear power offers the ideal combination of energy production, environmental resilience, cost, and overall risk reduction,” NASA states.
Every trip to Mars must be planned to the extreme. It would take a contemporary spacecraft between six and nine months to arrive, as long as it takes advantage of the time window in which Earth and the neighboring planet are closest. The first human-crewed voyages will have to be essentially autonomous, and energy solutions must also be autonomous.
The superiority of Martian nuclear energy
The space agency’s white paper on technology decisions for Mars explains that a photovoltaic solar panel could be affected or directly eliminated by the red planet’s dust storms. The nuclear option, on the other hand, will continue to produce energy during these events and for the 24.6 hours of the Martian day. In addition, the red planet receives less Sun than Earth and energy demands will be greater as soon as the first astronauts arrive.
NASA has already calculated the minimum energy values for a Martian mission. Two astronauts on a scientific exploration deployment of less than 30 days, living in a rover pressurized, they would require at least 10 kilowatts of power. The more people arrive and the more complex the missions become, the power will skyrocket to hundreds of kilowatts. Solar technology has no chance in the reality of Martian exploration. Nuclear power, on the other hand, has everything to succeed, if it is developed in the coming years.
The roadmap to Mars establishes the Artemis missions to the Moon as the ideal opportunity to test the behavior of space nuclear reactors. The development of the technology will require a large investment, but in the long term it will represent a reduction in operating costs. Experts also do not rule out more sources of energy such as that biogenerated by microorganisms or what would be obtained from drilling magmatic chambers on Mars. However, these options are not advanced enough.
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