In the next few months, new space telescopes and ground observatories are going to be finding new Exoplanets.

Looking to the Future of Exoplanet Science - Eos

Upcoming missions seeking to unravel the secrets of exoplanets abound. An informal survey of astronomers revealed which of those projects they most eagerly await.

 From article, (The European Space Agency’s (ESA) upcoming planet hunter, called Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO), came in third place in our survey. Although this 6-year mission is not scheduled to launch until 2024, its goal of monitoring more than 1 million stars for signals of planetary transits has caught the attention of the scientific community.

Discovering planets through the tiny amount of light they block as they pass in front of their stars has been commonplace since the launch and success of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope in 2009. Intended to build upon Kepler’s success, PLATO includes among its scientific goals detecting thousands of exoplanets (including rocky worlds), understanding the makeup and dynamics of planetary systems, and learning enough about the planets to determine their habitability.

The mission lifetime of PLATO is also a step up from that of Kepler. Because Kepler’s primary mission ended after 4 years, it was able to detect only a handful of rocky planets in their habitable zones. PLATO scientists calculate that a 6-year mission will significantly increase the haul of Earth-like planets in the Goldilocks zone and also potentially unveil smaller planets, exomoons, exoplanets with rings, and possibly exo-asteroids.

Coming in second place is the exoplanet telescope that is also the next to launch: NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). NASA selected TESS in 2013 to be funded under the agency’s Explorers Program, a 60-year-old program that develops small- and medium-sized missions costing less than $180 million (in today’s dollars). Now, just 5 years later, the telescope is completely built and is undergoing final testing before launch. The satellite is currently scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida this year, sometime from early March to late June.

Like PLATO, TESS carries on the legacy of the Kepler Space Telescope by monitoring hundreds of thousands of stars for the signatures of planetary transits. But what makes TESS unique is that the stars it will be monitoring are scattered across the sky. In fact, TESS will conduct the first space-based, all-sky transit survey, which it will carry out in a mere 2 years.

The TESS team plans to spend the mission’s first year mapping the Southern Hemisphere sky and the second year mapping the northern sky. TESS will monitor the brightest 200,000 stars in small patches of the sky for 27 days apiece before moving on to another area. This technique is not only expected to discover thousands of transiting exoplanet candidates but to begin to reveal areas in the Milky Way galaxy where exoplanets are most likely to form. TESS’s initial list of targets contains 750 billion objects.

TESS’s targets are 30–100 times brighter than Kepler stars, so they will be easier to follow up with ground-based telescopes, according to TESS scientists at the meeting. Because TESS will measure only the planets’ sizes, follow-up observations from the ground will be needed to reveal their masses, densities, and atmosphere properties. The TESS team also hopes to provide a wealth of future targets for the James Webb Space Telescope to focus on during its first few years of operation.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) won the most votes in our poll. Considered by many to be the successor to the HST, this highly anticipated exoplanet mission has been in the works since 1996. It is currently scheduled to launch from French Guiana in spring 2019.

Despite how excited exoplanet scientists are about the telescope, JWST is not dedicated solely to the search for and characterization of exoplanets. After the telescope opens its “eyes,” it will observe planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe in equal proportion. Moreover, the planetarycomponent of JWST’s mission is not even exclusive to exoplanets, as it will also explore planets and other objects in our solar system and study the potential for life close to home.

JWST will feature four instruments that together will observe infrared light for imaging and spectroscopy. Infrared light is ideal for studying exoplanets, particularly Earth-like planets, because the contrast between stars and planets is highest at those wavelengths. By viewing exoplanets across a broad swath of the infrared spectrum, JWST will measure the chemical contents of the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars and begin to tell us what conditions may be like on the surfaces of those planets.

The scientific advisory board of JWST has already selectedwhich areas of science the telescope will pursue during its first 6 months of operation, and exoplanet projects received 2 of the 13 highly coveted spots. One project will observe planetary transits with all four instruments, and the other project will directly image and obtain spectra of young exoplanets and planet-forming disks.

Currently, there are 17 funded or planned exoplanet missions in the works for future launch to space or at major ground-based observatories around the world. A few notable missions to add to the four detailed here are ESA’s Characterising Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS), scheduled to launch by the end of this year; NASA’s Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx), a proposed flagship mission dedicated solely to exoplanets; and the EPICS instrument, an exoplanet imager and spectrograph planned for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is now under construction.

What’s more, dozens of smaller exoplanet-hunting instruments will be added to preexisting telescopes, such as the Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF) at the ground-based Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas. Astronomers are also planning creative twists on data from other telescopes, like Gaia, that were not made to search for exoplanets to enable them to do so.)

For More Info

A New era for Tesla, where storing energy, at non peak times, can be sold at high peak times, for some serious cash!

Looks Like Tesla's Giant Battery In Australia Made Some Serious Cash This Month

Tesla's South Australian Powerpack Project , the world's largest lithium-ion battery, was fired up at the end of last year. Not only is this farm-sized battery already proving to be an incredible piece of tech, it could also be an exceptionally wise investment for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

From article, (Tesla’s South Australian Powerpack Project, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, was fired up at the end of last year. Not only is this farm-sized battery already proving to be an incredible piece of tech, it could also be an exceptionally wise investment for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Within just a couple of days, the Powerpack Project could have made approximately AUS $1 million (US $810,000) through the electricity wholesale market, according to an estimate by Australian clean energy news site RenewEconomy. Considering that the project cost an estimated US $50 million to set up, that’s a solid few hours' work.

The battery, located on the Hornsdale Power Reserve adjacent to the Hornsdale wind farm in South Australia, can technically earn money by holding excesses of electricity. Typically, supply and demand for electricity have to be matched at all times. During times when supply exceeds demand, electricity is negatively priced, so consumers are paid to take electricity out of the grid. With renewable energy sources, like wind or solar, storage battery programs are even more useful as the flow of electricity might not be reliable or controllable.

Working in collaboration with the South Australian Government and renewable energy company Neoen, Tesla can profit by soaking up excess energy and storing it for later use. Tesla’s contract with the government is not completely clear, but RenewEconomy worked out this estimate based on figures of power input and outputs from the Hornsdale Power Reserve, combined with the wholesale price. Earlier this month, Electrek also estimated that Tesla managed to earn a cool US $790/MWh to absorb excess electricity from the national power grid.)

For More Info

Why do Rail Tunnels in New York's Penn Station to New Jersey Matter to Connecticut? They are the Weakest Link in a Connection to the Rest of the Nation.

Getting There: Hudson River rail tunnel project long overdue

It should have been done by now: 2018 was the expected completion year of the new railroad tunnels under the Hudson River. When it was proposed in 2009, the $9 billion project was the biggest infrastructure initiative in the country. Now it's just a footnote to history.

 From article, (It should have been done by now: 2018 was the expected completion year of the new railroad tunnels under the Hudson River.

When it was proposed in 2009, the $9 billion project was the biggest infrastructure initiative in the country. Now it’s just a footnote to history.

Why do rail tunnels from New York’s Penn Station to New Jersey matter to us here in Connecticut? Because they are the weakest but most crucial link in the Northeast corridor, the $50 billion heart of the U.S. economy.

Imagine trying to get to Philadelphia or Washington without Amtrak running through our state, into those tunnels and to points south.

There are 23 bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan from the north and east. But between that island and New Jersey, there are only six — two of those rail tunnels were built in 1910. When Superstorm Sandy flooded those tunnels in October 2012 with 3.5 million gallons of salt water, their lifespan was shortened by decades due to corrosion.

If one of those two rail tunnels were to fail, the entire nation would be in an economic crisis.

New York’s Penn Station was never built to handle the 430,000 daily passengers who now use it, especially when compared to the 750,000 who enter the much-larger Grand Central Terminal. Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad carry twice as many riders at Penn than New York’s three airports combined.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents alone comprise 16 percent of Manhattan’s workforce. Their rail commuting options are so tight that many rely on the 7,700 daily commuter buses that bring them into the transit cesspool known as the Port Authority bus terminal.

 All that could have changed if the 2009 plan to build additional rail tunnels had moved forward. But then, along came Chris Christie, who balked at the cost and pulled the plug after he was elected New Jersey’s governor.

Cynics say he did so to spend money instead on highways and keep the state’s gasoline tax low for another few years, even after repaying Uncle Sam for $95 million already spent on the project.

Now the project has been redesigned — and re-priced at a staggering $20 billion, which also includes adding seven more tracks at the overcrowded Penn Station. The new target for completion is 2030. New York and New Jersey would each contribute $3.6 billion with another $1.9 billion coming from the Port Authority.)

For More Info

Just how much money is being spent on Electric Vehicles? $90 Billion. That is A LOT of Money.

How many billions are going into electric cars, globally? Guess the number...

Countries around the world-especially China, France, the U.K., and Norway-are aiming to phase out the sale of new fossil-fuel vehicles entirely between 2025 and 2040. So it's in automakers' best interests to begin planning and investing now in vehicle lineups that will comply with that regulatory environment when it comes.

 From article, (In total, global automakers have earmarked more than $90 billion to develop plug-in electric vehicles, mostly for the burgeoning electric-car market in China.

Reuters collected all the publicly announced investments from automakers to come up with that $90 billion total.

Of that amount, $19 billion comes from automakers in the United States, $21 billion in China, and a remarkable $52 billion in Germany.

However, executives from both U.S. and German automakers told the news agency most of their investments in battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will be focused on China, which is already aggressively promoting sales of electric cars.

Volkswagen, working to reinvent itself after its diesel-emission scandal in the U.S. and 

Europe, is the automaker with the largest planned investment so far:$50 billion.

It plans to electrify most of its 300-plus models by 2030, and will introduce its first all-new electric model in the United States by 2020.

The level of investment so far is outsized compared to the global electric vehicle market.

Reuters calculated that plug-in electric vehicles currently account for less than 1 percent of overall global vehicle sales, which totaled roughly 90 million last year.

While auto-company executives can read the sales stats as well as anyone else, they are not ignorant of the upcoming regulations—which they have far less power to change in China than they may under the current U.S. administration.)

For More Info

Electric Car Charging Plugs are having a Betamax vs. VCR moment. Why do Car makers back their own standards? It's all about Advantage.

Plug wars: the battle for electric car supremacy

By Christoph Steitz FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German carmakers hope a network of high-power charging stations they are rolling out with Ford will set an industry standard for plugs and protocols that will give them an edge over electric car rivals.

 From article, (Swiss bank UBS has estimated that $360 billion will need to be spent over the next eight years to build global charging infrastructure to keep pace with electric car sales, and it will be key to limit the numerous technologies now in use.

"The quick-charging marketplace might be growing fast but the issue of different types of connectivity and communication will need to be resolved going forward," UBS said in a study published this month.

To try to build critical mass for the Combined Charging System (CCS) favored by Europe, BMW, Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen group, which includes Audi and Porsche, said in November they would develop 400 high-power charging stations on main roads in 18 European countries by 2020.

"In the end, it is about safe-guarding investments for those that are investing in electric mobility," said Claas Bracklo, head of electromobility at BMW and the chairman of the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), which is backing CCS.

"We have founded CharIN to build a position of power."

It is still early days for electric cars and difficult to predict which plug technology will prevail or even whether there will always be different ways to charge vehicles, unlike the one-size-fits-all nozzle that can refill all petrol cars.

But there is a lot at stake for the carmakers ploughing billions of dollars into the development of batteries and electric cars.

Besides CCS, there are three other standards that will charge batteries fast: Tesla's Supercharger system, CHAdeMO, or Charge de Move, developed by Japanese firms including carmakers Nissan and Mitsubishi, and GB/T in China, the world's biggest electric car market.

So far, there are about 7,000 CCS charging points worldwide, according to CharIN, with more than half in Europe. The European Union backs CCS as the standard for fast-charging but does not prohibit other plugs being installed.

That compares with 16,639 charge points compatible with CHAdeMO - most in Japan and Europe - and 8,496 Tesla Superchargers, with the majority in the United States. In China, there are 127,434 GB/T charging stations, according to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance.

Just as in previous format wars such as the battle for videotape dominance between VHS and Betamax, each charging standard has its pros and cons.

Tesla's system is exclusive to its clients, for example, while CCS features a double-plug that can charge DC and AC, increasing the number of spots where drivers can recharge.

CHAdeMO, meanwhile, allows cars to sell power from their batteries back to the grid, a process known as bi-directional charging that can help stabilize energy networks in times of demand swings and earn car owners some extra cash.

"If I were Nissan, I'd be wanting to take that standard and make it the dominant one," said Gerard Reid, founder of Alexa Capital that advises companies in the energy, technology and power infrastructure sectors.

"It creates a competitive advantage for them," he said.

Most plugs used to charge cars at home use alternate current (AC) and are slow, so building networks that can power vehicles fast when on the road is seen as key by the industry, given many potential consumers still worry about battery range.

Able to deliver more powerful direct current (DC), fast-chargers can load electric cars up to seven times faster.

The fastest DC stations, capable of delivering up to 400 kilowatts, can recharge cars within 10 minutes, a vast improvement on the 10-12 hours it can take to reload at some AC charging points today.

While sticking with developing its proprietary network for now, Tesla is a member of the CHAdeMO and CharIN initiatives. It is also selling adapters so owners of its cars in North America and Japan can use CHAdeMO charging stations.

Tesla declined to comment on whether it would consider joining a rival charging standard at some point, a move analysts say could be a tipping point in the race for plug dominance.

"For Tesla it was always very important to have a charging infrastructure for our clients from the get-go," a spokeswoman said, adding that it welcomed all investment in car charging.)

Seeking life on Exoplanets, Similar to Earth, may need the Sniff Test.

NASA could detect alien life on other worlds using a telescope-powered 'sniff test'

In their search for life on other planets, scientists say they want to start using a new sense: smell. They're hoping that by sniffing out and tracking down chemicals like methane and carbon dioxide via telescope, they'll be able to find more places that could be good breeding grounds for microbes, even if there's no oxygen present.

From article, (A new study from scientists at the University of Washington argues that telescopes could perform a new kind of "sniff test" for life, looking for gases like methane and carbon dioxide that might bring new clues about where other organisms could exist. 

The scientists say it's not enough to look for oxygen, which would be a tell-tale sign that life existed on another planet. After all, other beings or organisms might not even need oxygen. If they exist, they probably aren't just like us. 

"We need to look for fairly abundant methane and carbon dioxide on a world that has liquid water at its surface, and find an absence of carbon monoxide," study author and astrobiologist David Catling said in a release. He's pretty sure that a recipe of methane, carbon dioxide and surface water would be a compelling signal that there is life nearby.

The researchers hope that NASA will take note of their new sniffing strategy as the agency prepares to launch the James Webb telescope next year. The telescope will check out exoplanets like the TRAPPIST-1 system, a neighborhood of seven rocky globes outside our solar system that scientists think could be habitable. If the telescope can take a whiff of the newly-discovered planets, it could get us closer to answering our questions about life in the universe.

But not everyone is certain that the technique will work smoothly. Astronomer and MIT professor Sara Seager has said using spectroscopy to examine into distant rocky planets will likely lead to false positive reports of chemicals and gases.

"We may not be able to point to a planet with certainty and say, 'That planet has signs of life,'" she wrote in a 2014 paper about spectroscopic life detection. She said successfully sniffing for alien life is something that's going to require next-generation telescope technology that doesn't yet exist.)

For More Info

Do we really need more than one Monkey?

Move over, Dolly: Monkeys cloned; a step closer to people? :: WRAL.com

For the first time, researchers have used the cloning method that produced Dolly the sheep to create two healthy monkeys, bringing science an important step closer to being able to do the same with humans.

 From article, (For the first time, researchers have used the cloning technique that produced Dolly the sheep to create healthy monkeys, bringing science an important step closer to being able to do the same with humans.

Since Dolly's birth in 1996, scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals, including dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo ponies, and have also created human embryos with this method. But until now, they have been unable to make babies this way in primates, the category that includes monkeys, apes and people.

"The barrier of cloning primate species is now overcome," declared Muming Poo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.

In a paper released Wednesday by the journal Cell, he and his colleagues announced that they successfully created two macaques. The female baby monkeys, about 7 and 8 weeks old, are named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.

Poo said the feat shows that the cloning of humans is theoretically possible. But he said his team has no intention of doing that. Mainstream scientists generally oppose making human babies by cloning, and Poo said society would ban it for ethical reasons.

Instead, he said, the goal is to create lots of genetically identical monkeys for use in medical research, where they would be particularly valuable because they are more like humans than other lab animals such as mice or rats.

The process is still very inefficient — it took 127 eggs to get the two babies — and so far it has succeeded only by starting with a monkey fetus. The scientists failed to produce healthy babies from an adult monkey, though they are still trying and are awaiting the outcome of some pregnancies. Dolly caused a sensation because she was the first mammal cloned from an adult. 

The procedure was technically challenging. Essentially, the Chinese scientists removed the DNA-containing nucleus from monkey eggs and replaced it with DNA from the monkey fetus. These reconstituted eggs grew and divided, finally becoming an early embryo, which was then placed into female monkeys to grow to birth.

The scientists implanted 79 embryos to produce the two babies. Still, the approach succeeded where others had failed. Poo said that was because of improvements in lab techniques and because researchers added two substances that helped reprogram the DNA from the fetus. That let the DNA abandon its job in the fetus, which involves things like helping to make collagen, and take on the new task of creating an entire monkey.)

For More info

Pumped Hydro Storage can Solve Intermittency from Renewable Power Sources.

How pumped hydro storage can help save the planet

In pumped hydro storage there is a tried-and-tested technology that not only fits the bill for future energy needs but has been doing the job for well over a century. Andrew Wade reports It's often assumed that to mitigate the worst effects of climate change we need an energy revolution incorporating a raft of new [...]

 Me, "Pumped Hydro can be used in many places as the UK and other places have found out."

From article, (It’s often assumed that to mitigate the worst effects of climate change we need an energy revolution incorporating a raft of new ideas. However, the core technologies needed to decarbonise the power sector already exist in the form of renewables, with wind and solar now the fastest-growing sources of new generation.

One major problem, as critics are quick to point out, is intermittency. If that problem could be solved, the energy sector could be transformed within a few short decades. And, as it happens, several countries are betting that we already have the answer.

In pumped hydro storage there is a tried-and-tested technology that not only fits the bill but has been doing the job for well over a century. First employed in the 1890s, pumped hydro makes up 97 per cent of energy storage worldwide, with around 168GW currently installed. Excess off-peak grid power – theoretically from renewables – is used to pump water uphill, where it’s stored as gravitational potential energy. When electricity demand is high, water is released downhill to power turbines, the elevated reservoirs essentially acting as giant batteries to help balance the grid.

Currently, the UK has four operational plants. When the youngest – Dinorwig in Snowdonia – was built over 30 years ago, it was the largest civil engineering contract ever awarded by the government. Today, just up the road in Glyn Rhonwy, a new pumped storage venture is being developed by private company Snowdonia Pumped Hydro (SPH). With 99.9MW of output and 700MWh of storage capacity, it won’t solve the climate change problem singlehanded. However, the process behind its selection also threw up hundreds of other viable UK sites. By exploiting just a handful of these, pumped hydro could be the last missing piece of the UK’s clean energy puzzle.

Located just to the north of Beijing, the Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station will have an installed capacity of 3,600MW, making it the largest pumped hydro facility in the world. Its generators will be fed by an upper reservoir holding nearly 49 million cubic metres of water – enough to fill about 19,500 Olympic pools. By comparison, each of Glyn Rhonwy’s reservoirs will hold just over 1 million cubic metres.

in Australia the planned Snowy Hydro 2.0 project will look to add pumped storage to the long-established hydro generation already in place. If completed, it will add generation capacity of 2,000MW and a massive 350GWh of storage. This year, a government-backed study by the Australian National University (ANU) into other viable locations identified 22,000 sites, the bulk of which are on the more densely populated east coast. Combined, these could provide around 67,000GWh of storage.)

For More Info

Ethanol created from CO2, water, a metal catalyst, and electricity from wind or solar power, can reduce Green House Gas Emissions from Internal Combustion Cars as a filler

Transport needs to do a lot more to fight climate change

Transport is the second biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world, accounting for more than one fifth of all emissions. But progress in reducing these emissions is among the slowest of all sectors, warns Eric Sievers. Eric Sievers is investment director of Ethanol Europe, which is part of the Climate Ethanol Alliance.

 Me, "I am a big proponent of Ethanol blending with Gasoline to reduce Green House Gas emissions and it is true that ICE (Internal Combustion Engines will be on the road for at least a few decades until electric cars, and trucks can take over. So, it makes sense to find a way of producing less greenhouse emissions Ethanol does this and can be used as a filler to use less gasoline in a car.

I just believe there are easier ways of producing Ethanol than using fertilizer (Which uses CH4 Methane to create the fertilizer), to grow corn, and then a ethanol plant that basically uses Ethanol fermentation to produce Ethanol." 

From Wikipedia, (Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as by-products.)

Me, "The problem with Ethanol Fermentation is that it uses a lot of energy to produce Ethanol. It uses so much that it is debatable if this type of ethanol production makes sense. Your using just as much energy put in to it as you get out of it and your reducing the amount of corn that people can eat driving up food prices. Also as a by product your producing extra CO2.
There is a new way of producing Ethanol from Water, Carbon Dioxide and a carbon, copper, nitrogen catalyst. It just needs electricity to get the whole process moving.
From article, https://www.energy.gov/…/scientists-accidentally-turned-co2…(The team used a catalyst made of carbon, copper and nitrogen and applied voltage to trigger a complicated chemical reaction that essentially reverses the combustion process. With the help of the nanotechnology-based catalyst -- which contains multiple reaction sites -- the solution of carbon dioxide dissolved in water turned into ethanol with a yield of 63 percent. Typically, this type of electrochemical reaction results in a mix of several different products in small amounts.)
This type of Ethanol production can be simplified by getting the electricity from a wind turbine, water from a local river, lake etc, and the CO2 from the air. There is no fermentation, which means this type of Ethanol creation is less energy intensive and makes more sense as a way of producing economic Ethanol."

From article, (Road transport is over 90% reliant on fossil oil and transport CO2 emissions are still growing. They grew by 2.5% annually between 2010 and 2015 globally and are on track to become the largest GHG emitting sector, especially in developed countries.

If Europe wants to reduce carbon emissions in transport it will need to rely on the use of ethanol as well. It is a proven clean technology, getting better all the time, available at the scale needed to tackle transport’s climate challenge.

Ethanol cuts GHG emissions from petrol by more than half and is promoted by most major industrial nations in the world. The US has for more than a decade had policies in place to increase the share of ethanol use. Brazil has the highest share of ethanol use globally, recently raising it to 27% of transport fuels.

China has just announced that E10 (a blend of 10% ethanol in petrol) will be introduced by 2020. India is aiming at E10 by 2022. Canada and other Asian and American countries are also following suit with similar measures considered.

The climate benefit of ethanol used as a transport fuel is recognised globally. The UNFCCC agrees that ethanol and other sustainable biofuels have an important role to play in decarbonisation for decades ahead.

Transport’s main fuel will still be fossil-fuel based even in 2040. Modal shift, energy taxation, internalisation of the billions of dollars of negative externalities of oil, are insufficient to reach the Paris Agreement goals.

If Europe wants achieve its goal of decarbonising EU transport it simply needs a mix of renewable energy solutions — including low-emission fuels such as sustainably produced and renewable European ethanol.

It has 64% greenhouse gas savings on average, compared with petrol It is also the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions in transport. EU can count on it today to achieve the non-ETS.)

For More Info

When the Wind doesn't blow or the Sun doesn't shine, What do you do for power on Mars? NASA believes in Small Fission Reactors yet, Solar Power, plugged into battery storage could also work.

NASA Just Found the Key Energy Source to Power Mars Colonies

The days of us relying on solar power and rocket fuel for colonizing Mars are numbered. NASA has found a better way. With plans being made to colonize Mars, NASA has decided that it's time for nuclear power to take center stage.

 From article, (In a recent announcement, NASA unveiled the Kilopower project, which will potentially provide power for settlements and exploration on the surface of the Red Planet.

Kilopower is essentially a miniature nuclear reactor that produces just enough electrical power to carry out essential tasks.

Kilopower has been given primacy by NASA partly because solar power is going to have a tough time fulfilling the needs of astronauts if the panels are situated on the Martian surface—day and night cycles, dust storms, and other factors mean that sunlight won't always be around to provide the base-level of energy needed to get things done. The Kilopower system, on the other hand, can create a steady supply of power depending on the needs of the astronauts.)

Me, "If the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow on Mars you have to come up with some kind of power source. NASA believes it is Nuclear Fission. I just hope the astronauts do not have a nuclear meltdown."

For More Info

Me, "However another older article favors Solar Power on Mars. Just bring a cloth to wipe off the panels..."

Despite Dust Storms, Solar Power is Best for Mars Colonies - Universe Today

caption] Dust - a solar panel's worst nightmare. Is sending solar-powered robots to the Red Planet a bad idea? Mars is a very dusty planet, and Mars dust sticks to everything, especially solar arrays. After all, Phoenix's death was probably hastened by a Sun-blocking dust storm, and rover Spirit was battered by the combined solar ...

From article, (It sounds like the “nuclear space debate” continues. Thinking back to when Galileo was launched toward Jupiter in 1989, or when Cassini was sent to Saturn in 1997, huge protests erupted from critics, Cape Canaveral neighbours and anti-nuclear organizations. The argument was that should there be a launch accident, the radioactive material contained inside the radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs) could be scattered through the atmosphere and over a wide area on the ground (i.e. death and destruction). While this is a scary thought, NASA engineers were very quick to point out that RTGs are virtually indestructible, even under extreme conditions during an explosion and atmospheric re-entry.

It would appear that a large solar panel array can match nuclear generators, only if they are situated at a latitude of 0-40° north of the Martian equator. Southern latitudes have much less solar energy available for most of the year.

So what’s the best plan of action? According to Hofstetter, a Mars mission should be able to transport several 2 metre-wide rolls of thin-film solar panel arrays. Rolling out an array of these thin-film rolls could supply ample energy to a colony. For example, if the array is positioned at 25° north, measuring 100×100 metres, 100 kilowatts can be generated. The MIT researchers even calculated it would take two astronauts 17 hours to construct the array (alternatively they could get a robot to do it).

Commenting on this Mars energy solution, Colin Pillinger, planetary scientist with the Open University, UK (and head Beagle 2 scientist) said the solar array’s old foe — dust — shouldn’t be too much of a problem after all. “Dust storms tend to start in well-known places in the southern hemisphere as it warms up, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid them,” he said.

So the skies may be clear for solar energy on Mars after all. Even though dust storms causes problems for our robotic explorers, manned expeditions may be able to avoid them all together. Besides, I don’t see why astronauts couldn’t pack some brushes to wipe down the arrays should dust become a problem…)

 For More Info