College of Engineering Unit:
The goal of this project is to design a sustainable energy infrastructure that supports human exploration on Mars using technology from Earth. Mars at one point had a climate that was similar to Earth’s which makes it a key point of interest to study the evolution of the planet’s conditions. However, these conditions create a unique set of challenges when it comes to setting up a mission to Mars and the limited resources on the planet make it difficult to create a sustainable energy source.
To solve these issues, four types of energy generation methods were investigated to determine the viability of each option. Our requirements for this investigation were to find an energy source that would produce 80 KWe for a six-person crew, complete with safeguards and a variety of different sources in case one source was to fail. Wind and geothermal energy were studied as potential sources, however, they were deemed to be non-viable due to their size, weight, and potential energy output. Nuclear energy and solar energy were chosen as the primary source of energy generation for this project due to the stability of nuclear energy and the history of solar technology being used in space applications. Two nuclear reactors were selected as possible options for this project. One reactor was the USNC-tech Pylon reactor design and the other was the NASA Kilopower reactor. Utilizing these reactor types we created two scenarios that focused on the two different reactors with solar panels providing half the required energy as supplemental energy and backup in case of reactor emergencies resulting in loss of power.
The final recommendation for this project is to use the USNC-tech Pylon reactor design with 320 m2 of solar panels to meet the energy requirement. The area of solar panels was calculated in reference to the Mars Solar Scout Mission Study which we scaled linearly to reflect our power requirements. This scenario provides the optimal amount of energy for instrumentation, oxygen production, water synthesis, and heating for the Mars inhabitants at a lower cost than the other scenario. Through our research and design of this energy infrastructure, we can hope to ensure a successful mission for all parties involved.