If we want to colonize Mars we will need energy. Solution: mount wind farms on its surface

By dint of resorting to them, expanding them throughout the territory and innovating with new designs, no one is surprised to find wind turbines anymore. We have seen them small and XXL sizes, without blades, floating in the middle of the sea, on mountains, rooftops or with crazy configurations. And given all that will still need to be extended if we are to reach the renewable energy targets by 2050 it is likely that we will continue to see them more frequently in the future. Where we have not found them is perched on the craters or the slopes of volcanoes on Mars. For now, of course. In the future things could change.

A group of US scientists has wondered if the eolic energy could help us in the colonization of Mars. It may sound crazy, but the question has its logic. Especially if tomorrow we want to promote the exploration of the red planet or even guarantee a stable presence on its surface, with the consequent demand for reliable and safe energy that this would require.

The atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than that of our planet. To be more precise its density records only 1% from the terrestrial, a characteristic that is reflected in the strength of its gusts of wind and leaves a priori not particularly buoyant conditions to take advantage of the wind potential. In fact, this was the view for quite some time by the researchers, who chose to directly rule out that option as a viable energy source.

“It’s really exciting”

At the end of 2022, however, a group of scientists published an article in nature astronomy which shows that Martian wind could prove to be a much more valuable ally than we thought. After all, it also has advantages over two other alternative energy sources: solar and nuclear.

The first would be very susceptible to variations throughout the day, seasons and latitudes, not to mention the challenge that dust storms would pose to its operations. The second would force us to fix radioactive material near human habitats and face the thorny question of how to dispose of its waste.

In their study what they have basically done victoria hartwickof Ames Research Center of NASA, and the rest of his colleagues is to evaluate the potential of wind energy over the course of a year on the surface of Mars. For his analysis, they used NASA climate models and different maps with data collected by missions Mars Global Surveyor Y Viking.

Regarding technology, they worked with commercial-scale machines with different powers and rotor diameters. “The biggest challenge for wind power on Mars is that even fast winds don’t have a lot of force,” Hartwick tells Space.com. Such a peculiarity did not prevent the team from identifying 13 “broad regions with stable wind resources”.

These are not the only conclusions they obtained.

Thanks to their observations, they found that the potential of Martian wind power is strengthened at night and presented itself as an interesting option during dust storms or winter seasons in polar and mid-latitudes. Some of these features are doubly interesting because they reinforce its value as a complementary energy source to solar.

By examining the characteristics of 50 landing points proposed for Mars, the team also verified that in the vast majority, 40, wind power would be capable of supplying at least a certain amount of useful energy. In a small handful, even 24 kilowatts would be marked, which would allow —Remember the website Space.com— supply a team of half a dozen crew members for more than a third of a year. Other points leave equally interesting percentages.

The investigation pointed to seven, in fact, in which wind power would be able to cover more than half of the energy at times with poor conditions for solar power. Its potential is especially interesting when combined with other complementary sources, such as photovoltaic panels, to cover demand.

“We found that wind speeds at some proposed landing sites are fast enough to provide a power source. independent or complementary to solar or nuclear energy. write down the authors in his article before pointing out that there are regions of the red planet with “promising potential” for the use of wind power.

“It compensates for diurnal and seasonal reductions in solar energy, especially in regions of scientific value in mid-latitudes and during regional dust storms,” ​​they abound. His calculations indeed show that the turbines could “stabilize” electricity production if combined with solar panels.

And they concretize: If the percentage of time in which the estimated power requirements for missions are exceeded is around 40% with solar panels alone, when turbines are included in the equation that figure skyrockets in “a large fraction of the Martian surface” until move in a hairpin that goes from 60 to 90%.

Not bad numbers with NASA’s Artemis lunar mission springboarding toward Mars and while China or Elon Musk They point to the arrival of humans on the red planet over the next decade. “We encourage additional studies aimed at advancing wind turbine technology,” the experts conclude. The goal: get more out of the Martian winds.

“Is really exciting that by combining wind power with other energy sources we open up large parts of the planet to exploration, to really interesting areas from a scientific point of view that the community may have ruled out because of energy requirements.” Hartwick abounds to Newscientist.

Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS