Scientists say solar energy tops nuclear for powering crewed missions to Mars

However, in the current study, researchers weighed the options - they compared

. The calculations observed the amount of equipment mass needed to be transported from Earth to the Martian surface for a six-person mission. Specifically, they quantified the requirements of a nuclear-powered system against different photovoltaic and even photoelectrochemical devices.productivity of solar-powered solutions

depends on solar intensity, surface temperature, and other factors that would determine where a non-nuclear outpost would be optimally located. This took into account several factors, such as the absorption and scattering of light in the atmosphere, which would affect the amount of solar radiation at the planet’s surface.A photovoltaic array that uses compressed hydrogen for energy storage eventually emerged as the winner. The “carry-along mass” of such a system is about 8.3 tons versus about 9.

“Now that we have an idea of how much power is available, we can start connecting that availability to the biotechnologies in CUBES,” Berliner said. “The hope is ultimately to build out a full model of the system, with all of the components included, which we envision as helping to plan a mission to Mars, evaluate tradeoffs, identify risks, and come up with mitigation strategies either beforehand or during the mission.

Project Orion

Even if they could harness 100% of the sun's output hitting them, how would it exceed that of a reactor core?

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