Nicholas Roeg stirred my interplanetary yearnings with the movie The Man Who Fell To Earth. David Bowie played Thomas Jerome Newton intent on bringing an Earth resource back to his thirsty planet.
If you reverse Thomas’ position and imagine yourself as a human wishing to create missions to Mars, initially to diversify the human genome as a de-risk, but also as a first step to our future as universe-wide life-forms, then you need to generate huge amounts of cash, assemble many resources, engineer & execute with zeal, and somehow be smart enough to realize that the technologies you need to populate Mars would benefit the home planet, Earth, to generate that cash hoard.
One can imagine the spaceships headed to Mars, as heading out in waves, much as explorers of the oceans or those crossing North America as settlers. The first set out venturesomely as hunters, privateers and imperial plunderers. Soon, others follow, lured by low cost lands, little regulation and a chance for adventure. What technologies and items must they carry, and what can they fabricate when they arrive?
At $300,000 per kilogram to convey Earth materials to Mars (2020 US $), one must select what to bring carefully, and plan to use the materials found at the far end wisely. Carry seeds, carry spores, carry tools, carry weightless data, carry genetic prototypes (like baby animals) but leave behind anything that is not essential.
Let’s assume we will try to meet Maslow basic needs (safety & physiological needs) at the outset for the first settlers, but we have medium and long-term plans to sustain human life on Mars, our first interplanetary colony. Let’s also assume that we know how flawed we are, and that we are likely to make a mess of the new planet; yes, we will aspire to do better than we have done on Earth, but we are still at an early fragile state with more self-attachments than more evolved beings.
To power what needs to be powered
Power is queen — so what would you use on a planet that has a day period just like ours, a tad longer than 24 hours, but reduced insolation. Remember the mnemonic ‘Many Volcanoes Emit Mulberry Jam Spludges…’, that Mars is further away from the Sun than Earth, in fact 1.5 AUs (Astronomical Units). It’s the Fourth Rock from the Sun. Mars is about half the size of Earth and is red tinged due to vast amount of iron rust in the soil.
Does Mars have long-term power stores like those on Earth? Buckminster Fuller defines long term storage (oil, coal, peat, gas, and nuclear) as the Earth’s emergency energy stores, and characterizes the Sun and geothermal energy as the readily available energy stores for our Spaceship Earth. Mars (the planet of the Roman war god and March), has had widespread volcanic activity, more recently than Earth. Current science, suggests that Earth, Mars and Venus have molten iron cores; a useful magnetic dynamo that can ward off the harmful aspects of solar radiation (that is, radiation which damages our cells’ genes, and generates spectacular light shows at the planetary poles). However Mars does not have a neat North South polarity, which means it might be a good idea to leave your compass behind when packing for the trip.
Carrying fuel to Mars from Earth or from the Earth moon is not viable so what can you find or generate on planet Mars?
- geothermal energy — using the delta in temperature between the surface and underground for heating, cooling and electrical power generation.
- solar electric — this is already a source of energy for devices sent to Mars for exploration, but prolonged dust storms present challenges similar to those on earth, which means you need sustainable ways to store the energy, chemical, thermal or other energetic forms of battery.
- burning powdered iron — a new form of non-carbon-based energy generation on Earth, could offer potential on Mars due to the presence of so much Iron Oxide (rust) in the surface material of the planet.
- nuclear power — there is evidence of nuclear explosion activity on Mars but finding viable fissionable material there is not assured. Current Mars rovers use small nuclear power packs (MMRTGs), powered by Plutonium, sourced on planet Earth. We have sent the most poisonous human-generated material, which is toxic for thousands of years, to another planet. Fusion-able material is more common in the universe, being more primitive lighter atoms. Earth scientists are making effective progress on controlled fusion in tokamak reactors. New research will be needed to stabilize a fusion reactor on Mars; the presence of so much water suggests that Deuterium and Tritium may be present in sufficient quantities to be useful for fusion — again, a use of a long term energy store, versus a type of energy sustainable for eons.
- photosynthesis — photosynthesis is the fountain of life on Earth; the primary source of solar energy capture, relying upon many obvious and subtle requirements. Mars is too cold for photosynthesizing cells to survive the night unprotected from freezing — even the most hardy lichen symbionts would need thermal protection. Mars lacks the 78% Nitrogen component of Earth’s atmosphere but has abundant Carbon Dioxide (it’s primary atmospheric gas) but at too low a pressure to be viable without pressurized greenhouses.
Investment philosophy & strategy for interplanetary travelers
I suggest five principles to execute interplanetary goals:
- Don’t carry anything but essentials to other planets & do not dissipate the source planet’s material resources in the long term. Less concisely, don’t dissipate the origin planet’s resources while populating the target planet. Return physical materials of like kind and quantity, and make use of renewable & solar energy sources for transit.
- Lean into atmospheric transformation.
- Create symbiotic Earth technologies that clean the Earth while generating cash to fund planetary exploration.
- Accelerate planetary ecosystem evolution research towards creating GAIA2.
- Minimize unnecessary energy uses in all planetary facilities.
Businesses to pursue on Earth as cash-cows and for use on other planet(s):
- Building-integrated solar power technology
- Battery technology
- Electric vehicle technology
Building-integrated Solar power technology
Why put a solar panel over an already protective roof, when you can make the roof out of panels with integrated solar panels? Solar Panels installations also make excellent shade structures. However roof integrated panels work well based on Earth’s 1 AU distance from the sun but with half the power potential on Mars, the roof area or land area to produce effective amounts of power and the production cost/KW become significant.
When developing the methods for producing photoelectric cells, lean into materials which can be sourced and processed on Mars. No one would carry more than a bootstrapping group of solar cells to Mars due to the cost of transit. Widespread use of photoelectric or thermal solar power on Mars remains speculative until it becomes clear that panels could be made economically and that the large areas needed, would be sustainable relative to other land uses.
However as an Earth-based business to generate a battery storage business for use on several planet’s, solar energy generation is a solid proposition on a planet slowly loosening its hold on long-term carbon based and nuclear fuel stores.
Battery technology
Grid energy distribution is unlikely to be deployed on Mars using country paradigms. Country domains on Earth derived late in our history, being preceded by city entities. Nor are there oceans creating clear continental areas — it’s all one continuous land mass with some less hospitable ice-bound areas. Humans will fill up some of the depressions with water, in time. For a power grid, one could imagine a new form of locally cohesive grids with power-sharing, managed by ML algorithms. The grid pattern will largely be determined by the dominant power generation methods, and their relative size. Today on Earth, solar grid-ties use the grid itself as a battery but the economics are complex to sustain. I predict that city grids will dominate, with appropriate taxes for using the grid as a battery, if your facility does not have its own battery investment.
Current Lithium-based battery designs are dominated by Lithium Ion which relies upon Lithium, Oxygen, Cobalt, Alumin(i)um, Manganese, Nickel, Carbon (as Graphite), Copper, plus the materials for an air-proof plastic enclosure. Many alternate anode, cathode and electrolyte options are in research and in common use e.g. super dense but dangerous LiPO and, as yet, unscaled LiFePO technology. Depending on what is found on Mars in retrievable volume, battery production will lean in that direction. Lithium batteries have their own fuel to make a fire; being pierced in a no-atmosphere or carbon dioxide atmosphere, will not be a protection from self-combustion.
On Earth in 2020, PG&E and Tesla are installing one of the largest grid-tied battery facilities in the world, to replace a decommissioned power station in Moss Landing, CA. The facility will be capable of 1.1gWh when fully built out. This kind of system is a peak load control system on a traditional large-scale grid system, offering additional power during peak times such as afternoons during heatwaves when Air Conditioning loads normally require additional power stations using carbon or nuclear fuels to come online temporarily. One might argue that Tesla electric vehicles were partially about developing electric vehicles but the industrial goal was mostly about advancing battery technology for use in renewable contexts on another planet.
Advanced battery chemistry will evolve according to exploratory data about what is available as raw materials on Mars. To risk mitigate, other forms of battery such as stored kinetic energy (reservoirs and flywheels) or molten-salt vats will also be considered.
Electric motor and vehicle technology
One disadvantage of occupying a new planet is its lack of infrastructure but that is equally an advantage; one can re-imagine how to build planetary infrastructure, such as roads, unburdened by the mistakes and biases of our foreparents, and knowing gravity is 0.375 that felt on Earth.
With Mars thin atmosphere, flying an aircraft at ground level on Mars is the equivalent of flying at 100,000 feet in the Earth stratosphere. Winged and heliflight are possible but the dynamics are challenging for carrying passengers safely.
Roads will have issues with dust accumulation as dunes migrate across the wind-blown plains. That dust, like the dust coming from an Earth volcano is fundamentally sharp due to lack of weathering. On Earth, stratospheric flight would be hazardous after a significant eruption such as Eyjafjallajökull due to wear on mechanical parts such as engine bearings; little data is published on this topic as such Stratospheric flights are classified operations.
While Portland cement, concrete and tarmacadam (bitumen) road-making methods are not appropriate on Mars due to current atmospheric chemistry and fossil-fuel issues, new forms of road-making can be developed for the lower-gravity (less shear force) conditions on Mars. Electric vehicles are the obvious choice as the motors have no dependence on atmospheric chemistry and can be powered by renewably energized batteries, produced on Mars. With lower atmospheric friction and lower gravity, the energy use of vehicles rolling on an equivalently smooth road, drops significantly which is helpful given the lower insolation of Mars. Prior to roads, for utilization of natural and mined tunnels, all-terrain technologies, including robotic pseudo-animals, will play a useful role.
3D printing, Water Ice (molded and bonded structural elements made of Ice) and re-use of materials from bored underground tunnels and structures, appear to be promising paths towards fabricating road infrastructure elements. Space manufacturing is emerging as a sector, initially due to specialized opportunity of low-gravity fab, but primarily as a pathway to product fabrication on other planets. Navigation and Advanced Driving Assistance Systems require special consideration which will be explored later under communications.
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In a future article, a Part II, I will explore communications and atmospheric transformation tech.
