Solar Panels On Mars Vs Earth

The maximum solar irradiance on mars is about 590 w m2 compared to about 1000 w m2 at the earth s surface.

Solar panels on mars vs earth.

The solar panels found in many satellites in space also include a folding structure that allows the panels to expand while the spacecraft is in orbit. So for example the earth receives more power per square meter than mars. About 55 60 of solar energy gets either reflected or absorbed on its way to earth s surface through clouds gases and dust. No doubt in the fullness of time it will be possible to build solar panels on mars however this is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Setting up thirteen football fields of solar panels is a huge amount of work on earth in shirt sleeves. The panels would have to arrive in mars orbit before being landed whereas on earth there is a serious penalty in launching them into orbit. On mars setting up and maintaining a solar farm of that scale would crowd out all other. The sun s intensity on a horizontal patch of the earth s surface of 590w m2 occurs when the sun is a mere 36 degrees above the horizon.

By the time theres enough colonists and waste to worry about mars. That would mean you needed twice as many panels for a given output but obviously no bigger inverters and transmission cable than on earth. Solar flux on mars surface fyi 590 w m 2 may be the solar constant in space at 1 au of 1361 w m 2 multiplied by the ratio of mars s semimajor axis to earth s squared which is roughly 0 43. At mars the two panels together produce 1 000 watts of power.

Mars completes one rotation every 24 6 hours that s the length of. Mars seasons are longer than on earth almost twice as long because its year is almost twice as long. To a rough approximation you could say that solar panels on the surface of mars are roughly half as effective as on earth.