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Energy on Mars

Energy and power · level 1, lesson 6 of 6

A question to start

Imagine your family moves into a home on Mars. Outside it is freezing, there is no air to breathe, and there are no shops, no power lines and no petrol stations. What would your home need energy for, and where would it come from?

The idea

A home on Mars would need energy for everything that keeps people alive and happy:

  • warmth: Mars is far colder than any winter on Earth;
  • air: machines that make oxygen and clean the air;
  • water: machines that dig out ice, melt it and clean it;
  • food: lamps and warmth for greenhouses;
  • light, cooking, computers, radios and the rovers and machines outside.
solar panelspower unithome

There is no coal or oil on Mars, and no air with oxygen for burning things. So the energy would come from:

  • Solar panels, catching the weaker Martian sunlight, with batteries for the night;
  • a small nuclear power unit, which makes electricity day and night, even in dust storms. The rovers Curiosity and Perseverance already run on one kind of nuclear power source.

Saving energy would matter even more than on Earth. A home on Mars would be very well wrapped up against the cold, and use every bit of waste heat.

Worked examples

1. A cold night. At night on Mars the temperature outside can fall below −70 °C. The heaters, and the thick walls that keep the heat in, are what keep the family safe.

2. A dust storm. A storm can block much of the sunlight for weeks. A home with only solar panels would have to save its batteries; one with a nuclear unit would carry on as normal.

Try it

  1. Name three things a home on Mars needs energy for.
  2. Why can't people on Mars burn wood or gas to keep warm?
  3. Why does a solar-powered home need batteries?
  4. What is good about a nuclear power unit on Mars?
Answers
  1. For example: warmth, air, water, food, light.
  2. There is no wood or gas there, and the air has almost no oxygen to burn them in.
  3. For the nights, and for dusty days.
  4. It works day and night and in dust storms.

Common mistake

"Mars homes could use the same power as homes on Earth, from a plug." There is no power station and no grid on Mars. Every bit of energy would have to be made there.

Where it leads