Powering a Station on Mars Any station built on Mars has a large power requirement that must be 100% reliable or humans and plants will freeze. On Earth, most electricity is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. Mars has had no widespread life, and so it has no coal or gas deposits to mine. What do we use instead? Solar power - Solar power is viable and has been tested to work on Mars. But, it requires LOTS of solar panels and if the light is cut off for months by a global dust storm, then the life-support systems will fail. Solar energy is a good supplementary power source for rovers, unmanned science stations and manufacturing, but our survival cannot depend on it. Wind power - Windmills are possible, but they have to keep moving during a dust storm, so dust may be ground up in the mechanisms. Technology testing for viability on Mars is required. Geothermal power - We can drill a pipeline down into the Martian crust and pump up warm water until it steams and drives a turbine. This could be a reliable power source, but we have to dig it out and that takes time. Also, we do not currently know if sources of warm water even exist. Nuclear power - Nuclear power is the most efficient and tested power source technology. A reactor similar to that on a nuclear submarine can be brought from Earth and used immediately. We have to shield ourselves from some of the reactor's energy products, but we have to shield ourselves from natural space radiation anyway. The reactors can be cooled using the freezing Martian air instead of using water, as in terrestrial reactors.