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Supporting a mission to Mars
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As the concept of sending a long-term team of astronauts, scientists, and other specialists to Mars to setup a habitat becomes more realistic, NASA is asking scientists and engineers to look at solutions to some of the many problems that will confront the mission’s day to day operations.
DISCOVERING THE BEST POWER OPTIONS One question being asked is: what is the most practical way to power future Mars missions? The seemingly simple question took UC Berkeley engineering students Anthony Abel and Aaron Berliner four years of hard work to figure out. Most scientists and engineers who have thought about the logistics of living on the surface of the Red Planet have assumed that nuclear power is the best alternative, in large part because of its reliability and 24/7 operation. Solar power, on the other hand, must be stored for use at night, which on Mars lasts about the same length of time as on Earth. And on Mars, solar panels’ power production can be reduced by the omnipresent red dust that covers everything. A new study, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, used a systems approach to compare the two technologies for a six-person extended mission to Mars involving a 480-day stay on the planet’s surface before returning to Earth. “If humanity collectively decides that we want to go to Mars, this kind of systems-level approach is necessary to accomplish it safely and minimize costs in a way that is ethical. We want to have a clear-eyed comparison between options, whether we’re deciding
ILLUSTRATION OF MARTIAN BIOMANUFACTORY POWERED WITH PHOTOVOLTAICS BY DAVIAN HO.
College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley
