Starship Mars Surface Power



I was doing some calculations around solar panels on Mars surface and thought I should keep it for future reference

Electrolysis:

50 kwh produces 1 kg Hydrogen and 8kg Oxygen

2000kwh produces 40kg Hydrogen and 320kg Oxygen

1000t of Oxygen takes 3125 hours to produce

130 Days * 6 hours Peak Sunlight = 781 Days (approx two Earth Years)

Produces 125t of Hydrogen

Liquify CO2 from atmosphere

Sabatier



Power Requirement Assumptions

570w per metre squared insolar at Mars surface

39% Solar Cell efficiency (space panel)

230w per meter squared of Solar Cells

Normal Commercial Solar Panel Dimensions (1.9mx1.3m) (2.47m2) (40mm Depth) 25kg

Square that fits in a 9m diameter Starship Cargo bay has an area of 63m2

Power Specifications

1,000,000w (1Gw) divided by 230w/pm2 needs 4400m2 of Solar Cells or 1781 normal commercial sized panels


25kg each or 44t for all the panels

If you create the panels in such a way as to maximise space in the quare you can fit about 25 panels worth flat in that square, you would need 71 levels of panels

If the panels are 40mm deep and stacked on top of each other with a 10mm gap you would need about 3.5m height of a cargo bay

Landing Site and Solar Insolation



Erebus Montes Site 16 or Arcadia Planitia Sites 1 - 9

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