Robert Heller wrote:

At Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:55:54 EDT Alain Fournier wrote:

Again that energy storage for the four weeks day/night cycle on the Moon
is a lunar mission specific technology, not one that will be used on
Mars.

Long term energy storage might still make sense. Given Mars's
*distance* from the sun and thus the *weakness* of solar radiation,
long term energy storage might still be of interest.

It is of interest but I don't think it is very important on Mars.
The colonist would probably be underground at night, with good thermal
insulation. Their level of activity would probably be low at night.
Therefore, they wouldn't need much energy for heating and not much
energy for their activities. Plus clouds are rare and thin on Mars
so you don't need to store energy for cloudy days. You do need
something to wipe off dust deposited on your solar cells or solar
concentrator or solar whatever, but if you can remove the dust after
dust storms, you can pretty much count on having solar energy
every day. Still I agree that it is of interest, just not as important
as it is on the Moon.


Alain Fournier