In the recent past, NASA has spearheaded efforts to understand the planet Mars through its Mars rover referred to as Curiosity that gathers evidence to show whether life is possible there. The sole idea is to colonize Mars, an idea that some scientists believe is possible and must happen. Mars colonization however requires terraforming. Terraforming refers to “planetary engineering or the process of altering the climate of a planet to be more hospitable to life and human exploration” (Shankel 1). It is believed that Mars is by far the most appropriate planet for terraforming. Through terraforming processes, energy will have to be created to allow people to survive there. This essay explores how nanotechnology can be applied to generate electricity on Mars using the available materials.
Currently, nanotechnologies have been applied widely in the energy sector to offer some noble ways of improving the conventional energy sources and enhancing renewable energy sources and storage (Bourzac 1). Generally, nanotechnologies ensure optimization of the available resources and their lifespan while using noble ideas to generate cheap, clean energy (Luther 5). Nanotechnologies play critical role in energy conversion processes. The major sources of energy are transformed into electricity through processes that require utmost efficiency. Efficiency reduces consumption while helping to curb emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. High efficient power generating plants, however, need extremely higher operating temperatures and, therefore, there is a need to use heat resistance components. Nanotechnologies, for instance, can be used to provide such materials by adopting nano-scale that acts as heat and corrosion cover to protect the plants and its turbines from extremely higher temperatures while improving efficiency associated with such energy generation methods. In addition, nano-optimized materials can be used in the generation of electricity from the stored carbon dioxide (Luther 5). Nanotechnologies can lead to developments of heavy-duty nanomaterials for plants to ensure longer life and mechanical stress management. Nanotechnology engineers believe that nanotechnologies will play critical decisive part in enhanced generation of energy for the Earth and Mars during terraforming.
In the recent past, scientists working on energy production have discovered that it is possible to produce energy with the Leidenfrost Effect (Wells et al. 1). Leidenfrost Effect is observed commonly when water interacts with the hot surface of a pan. It skitters about the surface. It has been established that the same behavior can also happen with the solid carbon dioxide, generally referred to as dry ice. Just like water, pieces of solid carbon dioxide can “levitate on hot surfaces with a barrier of evaporated gas vapor” (Dansie 1). It has been noted that vapor generated from Leidenfrost Effect can be used to drive engines. This discovery reflects a critical application of Leidenfrost Effect to generate energy for engines.
Fundamentally, it has been noted that Leidenfrost Effect can be applied in alien, extreme environment, including outer space to generate energy (Luther 1). Specifically, Leidenfrost Effect can lead to long-term, sustained exploration and colonization of Mars by relying on abundant dry ice available. In this case, dry ice will be the major resource for generating electricity in Mars.
To understand how Leidenfrost Effect would work on Mars, it is imperative demonstrate what takes place on Earth. Water is used to generate “stored energy in oil, gas or coal into vital electric or mechanical energy” (Dansie 1) by the using heat engine. Steam engine, for instance, is one example of heat engine, which relies on “heated water to generate heat vapor that turns into high-pressured steam” (Dansie 1). The generated steam is then used to run turbines that produce electricity or run locomotive engines resulting into movement. Water is preferred because it is abundant on the surface of the Earth. In addition, it can easily be transformed from one state to another – liquid to vapor using temperature variations. These processes are simply facilitated through commonly available technologies today.
On Mars, however, the situation is complex and changes spectacularly. While water is available in Mars, it can only be found in solid form (Harnessing the Cleaning Power of Dry Ice 1). It will require a lot of energy to transform solid water from one state to another until it generates electricity.
Therefore, surviving on Mars may require Leidenfrost Effect to exploit available block dry ice that is naturally occurring to generate energy. If the Effect can be realized through nanotechnologies, then generating electricity in Mars would be possible in the future and support explorers. Based on evidence provided by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), it is increasingly becoming clear that “dry ice could be a naturally occurring substance in Mars” (Dansie 1). Therefore, the dry ice as a resource alongside nanotechnologies could be utilized through Leidenfrost-enhanced engine dry-ice deposits to act as the primary means of developing mega power plants that can produce electricity on Mars.
It is imperative to recognize that several experiments performed to determine the viability of carbon dioxide as a material for heat engines have shown positive results (Wells et al. 1-7). Through directing the generated vapor after conversion of dry ice blocks above surfaces that act as turbines, dry ice has been successfully used to generate electricity to run electrical generators. It is also interesting to note that dry ice blocks can generate adequate vapor and pressure to rise above gravity. Consequently, Leidenfrost Effect carries the disc off the turbine surface and makes it to act as levitating rotor due to low friction. While it may sound like the steam turbine, Leidenfrost Effect works differently by creating high-pressure vapor to turn the rotors freely. The energy from the rotor is transformed into electricity without using bearing and, therefore, a reduced friction engine is realized.
Dry ice can be used to achieve the same goal on Mars just as water is used on Earth. The wide distribution of dry ice on Mars makes it the most appropriate material because of its physical properties to transform from one state to another under the normal Martian temperatures. By introducing nanotechnologies to enhance efficiency, Martian explorers would be able to harvest energy for long-term operations.
This essays shows that it would be possible to harvest energy on Mars from abundantly available naturally occurring dry ice using nanotechnologies based on Leidenfrost Effect. Hence, it is most likely that Mars explorers would develop power stations by exploiting materials available to harvest energy for electricity. By successfully harvesting energy from dry ice, humanity shall have overcome the biggest issue of generating energy in alien outer space environments. Adapting new knowledge on nanotechnologies to challenges posed by Mars while working with its available resources could lead to a more hospitable planet. Leidenfrost Effect and nanotechnologies provide sufficiently sophisticated means to generate electricity on Mars.
References
Bourzac, Katherine. Energy-Storing Nanomaterial Made From Hemp. Chemical & Engineering News. 2013. Web.
Dansie, Mark. Producing Energy with the Leidenfrost Effect. 2015. Web.
“Harnessing the Cleaning Power of Dry Ice.” PCI Magazine. Web.
Luther, Wolfgang. Application of Nanotechnologies in the Energy Sector. Wiesbaden, Germany: HA Hessen Agentur GmbH, 2008. Print.
Shankel, Jason. How We Will Terraform Mars. 2011. Web.
Wells, Gary G., Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar’ Glen McHale and Khellil Sefiane. “A Sublimation Heat Engine.” Nature Communications 6.6390 (2015): 1-7. Print.