page_title: Mars habitat
section_title: Power
hierarchical_section_title: Mars habitat / Overview / Power
caption_attribution_description: English: S91-52337 (1991) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) The first humans on Mars may revisit the landing site of the Viking 2 Lander in order to study the effects that the Martian surface and atmosphere have had on the spacecraft. These images produced for NASA by Pat Rawlings. Technical concepts from NASA's Planetary Projects Office, Johnson Space Center (JSC).
context_page_description: A Mars habitat is a place that humans can live in on Mars. Mars habitats must contend with surface conditions that include almost no oxygen in the air, extreme cold, low pressure, and high radiation. Alternatively, the habitat may be placed underground, which helps solve some problems but creates new difficulties.
  One challenge is the extreme cost of building materials for Mars, which by the 2010s was estimated be about US$2 million per brick to the surface of Mars. While the gravity on Mars is lower than that on Earth, there is increased solar radiation, temperature cycles, and the high internal forces needed for pressurized habitats to contain air.
  To contend with these constraints, architects have worked to understand the right balance between in-situ materials and construction, and ex-situ to Mars. For example, one idea is to use the locally available regolith to shield against radiation exposure, and another idea is to use transparent ice to allow non-harmful light to enter the habitat. Mars habitat design can also involve the study of local conditions, including pressures, temperatures, and local materials, especially water.
context_section_description: For a 500-day crewed Mars mission NASA has studied using solar power and nuclear power for its base, as well as power storage systems (e.g. batteries). Some of the challenges for solar power include a reduction in solar intensity because Mars is farther from the sun, dust accumulation, and periodic dust storms, in addition to the usual challenges of solar power such as storing power for the night-time. One of the difficulties is enduring the global Mars dust storms, which cause lower temperatures and reduce sunlight reaching the surface. Two ideas for overcoming this are to use an additional array deployed during a dust storm and to use some nuclear power to provide base-line power that is not affected by the storms. NASA has studied nuclear-power fission systems in the 2010s for Mars surface missions. One design was planned for an output of 40 kilowatts, and its more independent of the sunlight reaching the surface of Mars which can be affected by dust storms.
  Another idea for power is to beam the power to the surface, a solar power satellite would send the power down to the surface to a  rectifying antenna (aka rectenna) receiver. 245 GHz, laser, in-situ rectenna construction, and 5.8 GHz designs have been studied. One idea is combine this technology to with Solar Electric Propulsion to achieve a lower mass that the surface solar power. The big advantage is that the rectennas should be immune to dust and weather changes, and with the right orbit, a solar power Mars satellite could beam power down continuously to the surface.
  Technology to clean dust off the solar panels was considered for Mars Exploration Rover's development. In the 21st century there have been proposed ways of cleaning off solar panels on the surface Mars that are accumulating dust. The  effects of Martian surface dust on solar cells was studied in the 1990s by the Materials Adherence Experiment on Mars Pathfinder.
caption: Space art illustrating a group approaching the Viking 2 lander probe, which were supported by RTG power
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