Rocket Fuel!
Rocket fuel is easy to make: Water + Electricity = Rocket Fuel. More specifically, electrolysis of water to break it down into hydrogen and oxygen. When it burns, it just makes water again which falls as rain; it just might be the cleanest fuel on the planet.
In industrial setups, takes about 80 kilowatt hours of electricity to separate a kilogram of water producing a kilogram of fuel. The theoretical limit is less than half that at 39.4 kilowatt hours. Maybe some advances can be made to get closer to the theoretical limit, but for these calculations, we will use 80 kilowatt hours.
Solar is a good option for power. We're going to be needing a lot of rocket fuel, and solar scales well -- you just need to build the panels and have the space somewhere sunny and near the water. Also, we're going to eventually need to be making rocket fuel in space. There is a lot of sunlight in space. There is not very much wind or rain.
Solar cell technology is up to 44% efficient which is really good if you think about it. It puts them way above plants if you look at how much light they need and how much energy they store in ATP. We are going to need a lot of panels though, and the best economical trade-off is around 25% efficiency.
Solar radiation reaching the surface of the Earth is 1050 Watts per square meter. At 25% efficiency, that's about 262.5 Watts per square meter. On the surface of the Earth, we only get sunlight for about eight hours a day (discounting the limited light we get toward the beginning and end of the day), so each square meter produces 2100 Watt-hours (2.1 kilowatt hours) of power each day.
In space, there is more sunlight. A low Earth orbit can reasonably have 12 hours of sunlight per day - 1.5 times as long. A higher orbit can have nearly 24 hours of sunlight - 3 times as much as we get on the surface of Earth. Mars is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth. Because sunlight gets weaker as the square of the distance away, sunlight is 2.3 times as weak there. However, a high orbit around Mars would have 24 hours of sunlight, yielding 1.3 times as much power as solar panels on Earth.
Bottom Line: Producing 1 kg of rocket fuel a day on Earth requires 38.1 square meters of solar panels and 1 kilogram of water.
In industrial setups, takes about 80 kilowatt hours of electricity to separate a kilogram of water producing a kilogram of fuel. The theoretical limit is less than half that at 39.4 kilowatt hours. Maybe some advances can be made to get closer to the theoretical limit, but for these calculations, we will use 80 kilowatt hours.
Solar is a good option for power. We're going to be needing a lot of rocket fuel, and solar scales well -- you just need to build the panels and have the space somewhere sunny and near the water. Also, we're going to eventually need to be making rocket fuel in space. There is a lot of sunlight in space. There is not very much wind or rain.
Solar cell technology is up to 44% efficient which is really good if you think about it. It puts them way above plants if you look at how much light they need and how much energy they store in ATP. We are going to need a lot of panels though, and the best economical trade-off is around 25% efficiency.
Solar radiation reaching the surface of the Earth is 1050 Watts per square meter. At 25% efficiency, that's about 262.5 Watts per square meter. On the surface of the Earth, we only get sunlight for about eight hours a day (discounting the limited light we get toward the beginning and end of the day), so each square meter produces 2100 Watt-hours (2.1 kilowatt hours) of power each day.
In space, there is more sunlight. A low Earth orbit can reasonably have 12 hours of sunlight per day - 1.5 times as long. A higher orbit can have nearly 24 hours of sunlight - 3 times as much as we get on the surface of Earth. Mars is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth. Because sunlight gets weaker as the square of the distance away, sunlight is 2.3 times as weak there. However, a high orbit around Mars would have 24 hours of sunlight, yielding 1.3 times as much power as solar panels on Earth.
Bottom Line: Producing 1 kg of rocket fuel a day on Earth requires 38.1 square meters of solar panels and 1 kilogram of water.
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