The North American Aerospace Agency (NASA), demonstrated its present challenge to establish presence of people on the red planet and a recent discovery managed to prove that the expectation It is much closer and present than previously thought.
Recently, a key step to be able to turn it into a fact life on mars: the decision to use nuclear power of fission as the main source of energy for subsequent manned missions.
This alternative promises to address several energy challenges in Martian space and represents an important and notable advance regarding future mission planning.
How nuclear energy impacts Mars and why it is so relevant
He red planet It is a place that presents great challenges and complications for human missions and, above all, to plan to make a life there feasible. The solar energy encounters several limitations in that space, since Mars is located at a great distance from Sun already natural phenomena which can cause light blockage for weeks.
In the conventional nuclear power plants on Earth we use fission energywhich is generated by dividing heavy atomic nucleisuch as plutonium-239 or uranium-235. In this process, a huge amount of energy is released in the form of heat, which can then be converted into electricity.
Compared to solar energy, the nuclear is not affected by night or day cycles nor for the different climatic conditions that they present themselves. That is why this technology was identified as a “key decision“and totally necessary for humans to explore and discover mars.
NASA projects on Mars
The energy It is the fundamental element to determine the operation of different systems that are essential for research. Approximately one nuclear reactor compact capable of generating around 10 kilowatts would be needed to meet the basic energy needs during a prolonged stay on the red planet.
This discovery It is extraordinary to be able to make feasible many unresolved unknowns that would make permanence and survival of human beings on that planet: purify the air, generate drinking water, produce oxygen through carbon dioxide, power exploration vehicles, control temperature and generate a habitable habitat.
He Kilopower project aims to create systems capable of generate electricity continuous for years and allow complex operations to be carried out, such as the extraction and exploitation of local resources, and fundamental devices that keep in balance Mars systems.
Currently, there are being carried out technological tests on the Moonwith the well-known program Artemiswhich works as a kind of tester and tests and then implement the same developments but in the red planetand thus guarantee its effectiveness in challenging environments.
Source: Ambito
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