Power

For some years the question of how to power a Mars colony has been problematical. One might be forgiven for thinking that the essentials of life: air to breath, food to eat, and water to drink, would be the key to living on Mars. So they are in a fundamental sense but we are well on the way to creating stable technologies to provide each of these. Water reclamation and CO2 scrubbing enable long-term life support on the international space station. We need,of course, to expand our use of hydroponics to grow plants in space, because these can supply oxygen to breathe through their use of photosynthesis. They are also needed to provide an ongoing food supply. But all this requires power. Electricity to operate reclamation equipment, to pressurise structures to grow plants in the CO2 rich environment they require, and to provide a reliable supply of bright light to stimulate that photosynthesis for plant growth and oxygen creation (the sunlight on Mars is weaker than it is on Earth because the sun is so much further away; and dust storms of great intensity and duration can obscure the sun, limiting the reliability of both solar power generation and photosynthesis).. Power will also be needed to operate drills and heating equipment to extract water from sub-surface ice on Mars.

So power is the essential of essentials. It is also vital to the supply of lighting and heat for the colonists themselves, to operate all kinds of machinery, to cook, to bathe, to clean, to handle waste, to work communication equipment and all forms of electronics, to run medical services and to enable the use of any sophisticated tool. Once a colony is well established, power generation technologies will open up. There may be some scope for wind power using ultra-light, ultra-strong fabrics for large scale sails (wind velocities on Mars can be high, but the atmosphere is so thin that the generation of significant power would require large surface areas to capture much energy). Solar panels on a very large scale can be placed on the surface; but their use will be impeded by those dust storms and they will be expensive items to transport and to keep clean of dust. There will be potential for tapping geothermal sources of heat deep beneath the surface of the planet, but this will require large scale drilling and some fairly massive heat exchange equipment; it will not be available to the early colonists.

Initially, fuel cell technology may supply some power to supplement limited early solar panel arrays, although re-use of cells may be difficult. One marginal factor is that astronauts will need to take considerable exercise to maintain their musculature and fitness in a low gravity environment. Every source of energy should be tapped and even exercise bikes could be hitched to small generators to create some additional electricity (and the considerable body heat produced by exercise will help reduce the need for conventional heating in well insulated habitats).

But what is most likely to make the first settlement viable, is development of safe miniaturised nuclear fission reactors. I know that many will hate the idea of using nuclear technology on Mars, but leave aside the images of massive reactors and cooling towers and the long-term handling of large quantities of spent fuel. The reactors could literally be suitcase size and capable of substantial power generation. Such power plants have yet to be developed but the technology is considered feasible. They would revolutionise the chances of the first colonists and make the rapid build-up of a settlement much more practicable and speedy.