Need to Know Archives - NMPteam https://www.nmpteam.com/category/need-to-know/ Nanotechnology community Tue, 04 Jul 2023 08:59:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://www.nmpteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cropped-anatomy-1751201_640-32x32.png Need to Know Archives - NMPteam https://www.nmpteam.com/category/need-to-know/ 32 32 The World of Custom eBooks: Creating Your Own Digital Masterpieces https://www.nmpteam.com/the-world-of-custom-ebooks-creating-your-own-digital-masterpieces/ Tue, 04 Jul 2023 08:59:26 +0000 https://www.nmpteam.com/?p=253 While the convenience and accessibility of eBooks have made them a popular choice for reading, there is another aspect of this digital revolution that deserves attention – creating your own ebooks. This medium offers a versatile and engaging way to present your content. In this article, we will explore the process of creating your own...

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While the convenience and accessibility of eBooks have made them a popular choice for reading, there is another aspect of this digital revolution that deserves attention – creating your own ebooks. This medium offers a versatile and engaging way to present your content. In this article, we will explore the process of creating your own eBooks, provide tips for crafting visually appealing electronic books, and discuss the benefits of using a book maker online like StoryboardThat.

What are eBooks and How Did They Emerge?

Electronic books are digital versions of printed books that can be read on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, e-readers, and smartphones. They are typically available in different formats, including PDF, EPUB, and MOBI, which cater to various types of devices and software.

The concept of eBooks dates back to the 1960s, when computer scientist Michael S. Hart initiated Project Gutenberg, an ambitious effort to digitize and archive cultural works. The project aimed to make literature more accessible to the public by converting printed books into digital formats. 

Over the years, advancements in technology and the proliferation of the internet have made it increasingly easy for people to access and share eBooks. Moreover, today you can easily make your own digital book.

Why Create Your Own eBooks?

Creating your own eBooks opens up a world of possibilities, allowing you to share your ideas, stories, and expertise with a wider audience. Custom books can be tailored to suit your specific needs and preferences, making them a versatile medium for various applications.

Personal Use

Digital books offer a unique platform for aspiring authors, artists, and hobbyists to share their passion and creativity with others. For example, you can create:

  1. Children’s books: Create custom stories with vibrant illustrations and interactive elements to engage young readers and foster their love for reading.
  2. Photo albums: Compile your favorite memories into a beautifully designed digital photo book that can be easily shared with friends and family.
  3. Travel journals: Document your adventures with stunning visuals, maps, and multimedia elements to inspire others and relive your experiences.

Business Use

Ebooks can be a powerful tool for businesses, helping to promote products and services, educate employees, and establish thought leadership within an industry. Some ideas and benefits for using eBooks in a business context include:

  1. Employee training and development: Develop custom eBooks to educate employees on company policies, industry trends, and best practices, ensuring a well-informed and skilled workforce.
  2. Unique presentations: Custom digital books can also be used to design unique and memorable presentations for meetings, conferences, and events. 
  3. Customer education: Provide helpful resources and guides to support your customers in using your products or services effectively, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Educational Use

Ebooks are gaining traction in educational settings, providing students and educators with a convenient way to access learning materials. Custom digital books offer a powerful tool for educators to:

  • Develop interactive learning materials: Create engaging eBooks that incorporate multimedia elements, quizzes, and interactive exercises to enhance the learning experience.
  • Teach art and design concepts: Utilize visually rich digital books to explore and demonstrate artistic techniques, styles, and history.
  • Encourage student creativity: Assign projects that require students to create their own visual digital books, fostering creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.

Tips for Creating Engaging eBooks

To ensure that your custom eBook captures the interest of your target audience, follow these practical tips:

  1. Plan your content: Start by outlining your book’s structure, organizing your ideas, and determining the flow of information. This will help you create a coherent and well-organized eBook that effectively communicates your message.
  2. Write engaging content: Keep your writing clear, concise, and engaging. To make your book easier to read and digest, it’s crucial to break up large blocks of text. You can achieve this by incorporating headings, bullet points and images, which enhance readability and help retain readers’ interest.
  3. Design for readability: For optimum readability on all screen sizes and devices, it’s essential to pick fonts and font sizes with care. When it comes to body text, it’s best to stick to simple fonts. On the other hand, decorative fonts can work wonders for headings and emphasizing certain elements.
  4. Utilize white space: Leaving ample white space around your text and images can improve legibility and make your book more visually appealing. Balance text and visuals to create an uncluttered and easy-to-follow layout.
  5. Choose appropriate colors: Select a color palette that complements your content and enhances readability. Stick to a limited color palette to maintain consistency throughout your eBook.
  6. Optimize for mobile devices: Since many readers will access your book on smartphones and tablets, make sure your content is responsive and easy to read on smaller screens.
  7. Proofread and edit: Thoroughly proofread and edit your book to eliminate errors and inconsistencies. Consider asking someone else to review your work for a fresh perspective and additional feedback.

The Benefits of Using Online Editors for eBook Creation

Online editors offer a convenient and efficient way to create professional-quality ebooks. Most apps for creating eBooks feature intuitive interfaces that make it simple for users to design and format their books, regardless of their design experience.

Furthermore, such apps offer customizable templates that can save you time and effort when designing your eBook from scratch. Simply choose a template that aligns with your content and style preferences, and then modify it to suit your needs.

Online book making apps often include collaboration tools that allow multiple users to work on an eBook simultaneously. This can be particularly beneficial for teams working on educational or professional books, as it streamlines the process and enables real-time feedback.

Finally, with online editors, your project is saved in the cloud, which means you can access and work on it from any device with an internet connection. This also ensures that your work is securely backed up and can be easily shared with others.

Bottom Line

By following these practical tips and leveraging the convenience of online editors, you can create custom eBooks that cater to the needs and interests of your target audience. Whether for personal enjoyment, education, or professional development, creating your own eBooks offers a unique opportunity to share your knowledge and creativity with the world.

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LTC Casino brings a Nanoscience themed slot to its game library https://www.nmpteam.com/ltc-casino-brings-a-nanoscience-themed-slot-to-its-game-library/ Thu, 09 Feb 2023 07:58:10 +0000 https://www.nmpteam.com/?p=229 As the online casino world continues to grow, they explore new technology and how they can best utilise it to reach new customers. Many casino games and slot machine developers applied cutting-edge trends. As a result, they tap into that market and drive its growth. For this reason, LTC Casino from Australia is launching a...

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As the online casino world continues to grow, they explore new technology and how they can best utilise it to reach new customers. Many casino games and slot machine developers applied cutting-edge trends. As a result, they tap into that market and drive its growth. For this reason, LTC Casino from Australia is launching a Nanoscience themed pokie machine for their customers.

The gaming world continually emulates the real world. Many companies have developed new slots to match leading trends. Currently, nanotechnology is a significant trend in the science world. Nanotechnology refers to understanding and controlling matter at a nanoscale or minuscule level. Matter such as liquids, gases and solids lives nanoscale, a unit of measurement between 1 and 100 nanometers. Fields such as Engineering, nanotechnology and science measures, models, and configures matter in this size.

Nanoscience refers to the study of matter at the nanometre scale. A nanometre is one billionth of a metre, extremely tiny and hard to imagine. Nanotechnology, therefore, shows nanoscience in action. It allows the increase of a material’s surface area where atoms can freely interact with other materials.

Application of Nanotechnology in Gaming

Understanding matter on a minuscule scale has various implications in science, biology, physics and engineering. Its applications can improve healthcare, among other benefits. It can also be applied in the gaming world.

Notably, the gaming world has greatly benefitted from nanotechnology. In the past, players had a hard time choosing the right software. In today’s world, all a player needs is to download what they need from the internet and start playing. Most, if not all, online casinos offer an instant play experience, meaning players do not have to download any software to enjoy their favourite games.

As nanotech evolves, these software and applications are faster, better and stronger. It could lead to wearable technology where players can control gamely from fingertips movement without using a device. It would no longer touch your devices and compelling mobile computing and communication systems.

Nanotech could lead to embedded software into your hands, eliminating the need for mediums. It would also eliminate hardware, replacing it with gestures revolutionising gaming as we know it.

How Nanoscience Impacts the Internet of Things

Launching a nanoscience-themed slot helps educate players about this new technology. Though it is still young, nanotechnology will change medicine, food, athletics, electronics and gaming as we know it through research. Additionally, nanoscience will impact the internet of things (IoT).

It will make devices smaller and more energy-efficient batteries.

Additionally, it will improve how one controls the devices in the house. Sciences discovered that breaking down material to its smallest particles does not mean it will retain the same properties. However, the material can become more durable, conducive and stronger when done correctly. Below are some of the effect’s nanotechnology has had.

Nanotechnology in IoT and Electronics

Faster, stronger and stable internet is a result of nanotechnology. It allows internet access from mobile devices with a lot of power and vast data storage capacity. As a result of nanotechnology, we have seen a great revolution in the quality of screen display quality without excess power consumption.

Notably, research is still ongoing in this field. As a result, we will continue to see a more comprehensive array of electronic devices. It can redefine the internet as we know it. 

Nanotechnology and Smart Clothing

Wearable technology has been a technology pursuit of many innovators in this information age. We will likely see a new wearable technology shift with nanotech and IoT. We will have smarter clothes that are much smarter and more sustainable. Apart from helping us in gaming or entertainment, it could help track vital signs. Jackets fitted with tiny batteries can warm us up when the body temperature is low or cool us when needed. Nanoworld offers a wide range of opportunities to improve life for the better.

Internet of Nano Things and Price

Technology is expensive. Some people have failed to embrace IoT because of the involved cost. In most cases, appliances require to be constantly updated. If you have multiple appliances in the house, it can be a costly pursuit. However, nanotech could affect the prices of items by reducing them significantly. Smaller devices could translate to lower prices as they require fewer materials.

Nanoscience Themed Slot

Slot machine developers always look for engaging themes to add to their games. Since new games are released each year, retaining customers can be challenging. However, most players enjoy an excellent thrilling science-themed slot machine.

The developers incorporate popular scientific themes, experiments, and projects in these games to create exciting slots. They can theoretically explore what technology such as nanotech can do in these slots. They can include storylines and gameplay around various theoretical applications of this technology.

Contrary to popular opinion, these science-themed slots show that science is not boring. The games are fun and engaging. As a result, they help break down the science into easily comprehensible language, leaving people in awe once they understand the applications.

A novice can complete a game almost immediately without much training or practice. Players engage with reels, lines, different themes and symbols easily.

Other Sci-fi Slots of All Time

Players can enjoy other science-themed slots at LTC Casinos besides nanotech-themed slots. Some of these include the Mad Scientist slot. It runs on 5 reels and has 25 pay lines. It has standard features, and the Tesla coil icon can win you the grand prize. Gamblers can also play Star Trek: Against all odds.

Star Trek is the highest-rated sci-fi movie with ardent fans throughout the world. Its slot is based on five reels and has a minimum bet of $0.01. Science fans can also enjoy playing the Big Bang slot based on the lighthearted TV show. It rewards players with multipliers and free spins to increase rewards.

Casino players can also enjoy Doctor’s Orders, Gold Lab, Stellar: AGames, Transformers: Battle for Cybertron and Transformers: Ultimate Payback.

Many of these games have a galactic theme taking players to a make-believe world. In these games, science theme slots have a lot of animation, simulation and 3D animations. They try to make each spin enjoyable.

Notably, many lovers of science and slot machines are always looking for a new game to play. For this reason, these games come and go. Players look for challenging, rewarding and captivating slots to keep them entertained.

Conclusion

Science fiction shows a lot of things that nanoscience can help achieve. It is still a long way coming, and much research is ongoing in this field. It will have significant implications in current technology, easing how we do things. Though these ideas are in the future, the gaming world allows us to imagine a world where such ideas can exist. If history in technology is anything to go by, the devices will continue being smaller and nanotech applications far-reaching in many areas.

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RUSNANO: news. https://www.nmpteam.com/rusnano-news/ Sat, 12 Mar 2022 15:45:45 +0000 https://www.nmpteam.com/?p=194 Rusnano supports Russia’s nanomaterials industry by making direct investments and through nanotechnology investment funds, which provide funding to new high-tech projects. This ensures the development of a new industry. New investment areas include: nuclear medicine and medical instrumentation, innovative nanobiopharmaceutics, nanoelectronics and photonics, nanocoatings and surface modification, new materials for renewable energy production All of...

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Rusnano supports Russia’s nanomaterials industry by making direct investments and through nanotechnology investment funds, which provide funding to new high-tech projects. This ensures the development of a new industry. New investment areas include: nuclear medicine and medical instrumentation, innovative nanobiopharmaceutics, nanoelectronics and photonics, nanocoatings and surface modification, new materials for renewable energy production

All of the shares in “Rosnano” are owned by the state. Rusnano’s investments have led to 97 factories and R&D centres opening up in 37 different regions of Russia.

Rosnano is implementing the state policy for the development of the nanoindustry by acting as a co-investor in nanotechnology projects.

There are a number of Rusnano projects

1. RUSNANOPRIZE award.

Among the members of the jury for this year’s prize are several eminent foreign colleagues from Russia, the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Singapore, which will be awarded this year for the best innovations in the field of pharmacology, medicine, biotechnology and success in commercializing them.

The awards will go to businesses and scientists who have done outstanding work in the field of post-genomic technologies, proteomics, microbiology, or virology.

The prize is awarded for ground-breaking work in the fields of medicine, pharmacology and biotechnology. These fields combine a high degree of scientific intensity with widespread usage of nanotechnology and are important for society and industry at large.

2. Your invitation to study cancer doctors

The Foundation has collaborated with the FSCC DGOI for the first time in Russia to launch an educational course at this seminar we will provide you with insights into OMIX technologies in clinical oncology

OMICS technologies make it possible to study the totality of data at all levels of cell and organism functioning, including the study of genetic information (genomics), gene activity intensity (transcriptomics), The “Omics Revolution” is the convergence of many different types of data including DNA sequencing, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

“We have invited a Russian oncologist to speak with the Medicinja team about the best developments in cancer and the progress of cooperation in Poland. The speaker will also speak to us about current trends and future possibilities for cooperation between specialists,” said Tatyana Nikolenko, Head of the Course Developed by Order of the FIOP

The speakers for the day will be from major Russian and international cancer centres, you’ll be able to hear about their work and career paths. People working here in Russia who have worked in the oncology field can also become students of the course.

3. We have reviewed a number of Israeli and Russian startups.

To take part in the selection, you need to meet a number of requirements – your project must be related to the field of nanotechnology (and / or biotechnology), it should be an industrial project, and it has to have confirmed demand, including in the global market. We estimate the commercializing of our product will be done in no more than five years and project financing should last no more than three years maximum. To apply to join the scheme, joint applications from our partnering Russian & Israeli companies need to be submitted.

The Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs provides funding as a grant in the amount of not more than 50% of the budget of the Russian part of the project. The remaining part of the funds has to be donated by a co-investor (or several co-investors) which is also required for participation in the selection.

The Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy provides funding for the Israeli project, implemented by an Israeli partner company. You can follow their established procedure and rules.

4. RUSNANO Group has played an active role in the Beacon project, which uses precision sensors and light signals for personal medical assistants.

It is planned, that in certain regions of the country, personal medical assistant services will cover at least 10% of patients who are at risk for major diseases. These include arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and chronic heart failure

If you’re unfamiliar with what a Personal Assistant is, it consists of an individual wearable device that can collect data on the patient’s condition, a decision support system for data processing, remote monitoring & services and an integrated platform with the Uniform State Health, with a single portal for all your public services and a “My Health” service.

Medical assistants make it much easier to provide medical care and assistance. They will help make sure that care is available for patients when they really need it, enabling you to increase the quality of service for them. Furthermore, it helps maintain a level of satisfaction with the service.

5. 478 MW of the Wind Energy Development Fund’s new capacity was commissioned this year.

RUSNANO and Fortum invested in the Wind Energy Development Fund, and now they’ve started to make profit. They commercialized 3 wind power plants that have a total capacity of 47. This is the largest renewable energy commissioning in Russian history.

Every year, 114 wind power plants are installed and 1078 MW of production capacity is added to the Fund. Production and assembly of blades, towers and nacelles are all carried out in Russia. The international collaboration of wind farms is confirmed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and is more than 65%.

Back in December, the commercial operation of Kotovskaya WPP with a capacity of 88 MW begun and 21 wind power plants from Vestas were set up. They have a capacity of 4.2 MW each, and are located on the territory of the station. The Kotovskaya wind farm has become the first wind farm in the Volgograd region, and over time is quickly expanding its solar capacities. Headed by Denton, it’s also helped develop a Regional Investment Fund for more wind investment, such as the Novoalekseevskaya farm.

6. The Russian Youth Nanotechnology Prize is a great avenue for young inventors who want to secure funding for their ideas.

The Russian Youth Nanotechnology Prize offers an opportunity to young people and startups. The prizes for nanotechnological development can be awarded to people who are under the age of 35. They need to have developed and introduced their nanotechnology into real production and having seen first commercial results. The Rusnano award is given every year to people who have invented new nanotechnological products or technologies that have entered production.

It’s not surprising how many nanotech enterprises there are in Russia: 524, according to Rosstat. It’s important to know that Rosnano takes part in 83 of those companies, while the other 440 are independent. Our company has supported 109 projects in the last 20 years, with a total spending of more than 500 bln rubles. 40 thousand jobs were created thanks to us.

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The Beginning of Nanoscience https://www.nmpteam.com/the-beginning-of-nanoscience/ Mon, 14 Jun 2021 13:11:38 +0000 https://www.nmpteam.com/?p=7 Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules.

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How did it begin?

The ideas and concepts behind nanoscience and nanotechnology began with physicist Richard Feynman’s talk “Down Plenty of Space” at a meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology on December 29, 1959, long before the term nanotechnology was used. In his talk, Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules. More than a decade later, Professor Norio Taniguchi introduced the term nanotechnology in his research on ultra-precision processing. Only in 1981, with the development of the scanning tunneling microscope, which could “see” individual atoms, did modern nanotechnology begin.

Fundamental concepts in nanoscience and nanotechnology

Medieval stained glass windows are an example of how nanotechnology was used in the pre-modern era.

It’s hard to imagine how small nanotechnology is. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter or 10-9 meters. Here are some illustrative examples:
There are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch.

On a comparative scale, if a marble were a nanometer, then one meter would be the size of the Earth.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology include the ability to see and control individual atoms and molecules. Everything on Earth is made up of atoms–the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings and houses we live in, and our own bodies.

But something as small as an atom cannot be seen with the naked eye. In fact, it cannot be seen with the microscopes commonly used in high school science classes. The microscopes needed to observe the nanoscale were invented relatively recently, about 30 years ago.

When scientists had the right tools, such as the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and atomic force microscope (AFM), it was the age of nanotechnology.

Although modern nanoscience and nanotechnology are fairly new, nanoscale materials have been used for centuries. Variably sized particles of gold and silver created the colors in stained glass windows of medieval churches hundreds of years ago. Back then, artists simply didn’t know that the process they used to create these beautiful works of art actually led to changes in the composition of the materials they were working with.

Today’s 21st-century nanotechnology scientists and engineers are finding a wide range of ways to deliberately manufacture materials on a nanoscale basis to take advantage of their improved properties, such as higher strength, lower weight, better control of the light spectrum, and greater chemical reactivity than their larger counterparts.

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The Big Martian Problem – Energy https://www.nmpteam.com/the-big-martian-problem-energy/ Sun, 04 Oct 2020 13:18:45 +0000 https://www.nmpteam.com/?p=14 You've heard about SpaceX's plans to send us to Mars and build a long-term base. Humanity's exploration of interplanetary space!

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You’ve heard about SpaceX’s plans to send us to Mars and build a long-term base. Humanity’s exploration of interplanetary space! Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? But there is one glaring problem with Mars that few people talk about. It’s not the toxic soil, the deadly radiation, the rarefied atmosphere, the weak gravity, or the negligible amount of water. Even if we solve these problems, Mars will not become our comfortable home. The big problem is energy.

It takes a lot of energy to sustain humanity, especially on an inhospitable planet like Mars. Compared to Earth, the Red Planet is cold, toxic, and airless, which means that once we get there, an intimidating number of life-support systems will be needed.

The base needs not only pressure, but also a constant balancing of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen levels, all while maintaining heat to protect itself from the cold outside.

For our pioneers to survive on Mars, food and water have to be grown, distilled and recycled. All this takes quite a bit of energy. Not to mention how much coffee it takes to stay sane.

It’s estimated that a Martian base would need about 90 kW per person, which means a mission of 12 people would require 1,080 kW. That’s about the same power as a Bugatti Chiron at continuous full throttle. By comparison, the average American home consumes 1.4 kW, which is the consumption of a kettle on all the time. How do you get that huge amount of energy to Mars?

One option is solar. Solar panels are relatively inexpensive, easy to install and set up. Even I can take a simple solar panel circuit to charge my phone. You don’t need a nuclear physics degree to operate them safely. So why not build a massive solar panel farm on Mars?

Well, there are two reasons why this idea is bad. Mars is farther away from the Sun and receives much less solar energy, which is about 60% of what reaches Earth. I burn up easily on the Sun, so it sounds like music to my ears. Solar panels on Earth can produce 0.175 kW per square meter of battery, but on Mars they can only produce 0.105 kW/m. It would take 10,286 square meters to power the base, but that’s assuming the panels are perfectly lit all the time!

In fact, half the day one side of the planet is not illuminated, so you have to multiply the area by 2, you get 20,571 square meters, which is 4.6 rugby fields. You need a huge battery with a capacity of at least 12960 kW⋅h to provide power at night.

If measured in current Tesla batteries, such a battery would weigh about 82 tons. For a team of 12 people, that’s a huge weight to just pick up and install, keeping in mind that it has to be done fairly quickly, otherwise our explorers would have no food, heat, or oxygen.

But that figure also assumes clear skies. Mars doesn’t have a cloud cover like Earth, but it does have dust storms covering the entire planet, and they cover the sun for weeks or maybe months. When your life depends on solar power, it’s not good: Power will drop fatally because of these storms. Plant growth, which means food, will stop growing, oxygen machines will shut down, heat will go away, water processing will stop, even the coffee machine will stop working. Our solar base will die because of the big storm. So let’s not rely on the sun.

What about renewable sources, wind or geothermal? Mars’ atmosphere is so thin that wind power is not suitable for us, but geothermal sources would probably work.

We have no direct evidence of thermal sources, other than occasional methane emissions, but they could come from organisms like bacteria. Moreover, if there are any geothermal springs, they lie at a depth of kilometers. To reach such an energy source would require a huge infrastructure, which Mars does not have.

Compared to Earth, Mars is geologically dead. There are no active volcanoes, faults or magma bursts on the planet, so the amount of energy from a single geothermal plant is questionable. It is quite possible that renewable energy would not be worth the monumental effort.

So, no modern renewable energy will work on Mars. What about something more dangerous, like nuclear power?

We’d laugh if fusion energy already worked on Earth. We could harness the flow of electricity to split Martian water into oxygen and hydrogen, saturating the base with oxygen and providing the reactor with fuel. It’s even sad that such a technological marvel doesn’t exist.

We could use the same plutonium reactors that power the Mars rover Opportunity (MMRTG), they are light, powerful and safe by design. They take the heat of radioactive decay and use thermoelectric generators to turn it into electricity, so there is no need for the massive steam turbines used on Earth. But that would only produce 0.124 kW per 45-kilogram reactor. To power a base of 12 people, we would need 8,709 such reactors, which would weigh 391,905 kilograms!


Fortunately, NASA has developed a new reactor, the Kilopower system. This system uses uranium and Stirling engines to produce 10 kW of electricity for 15 years, and it weighs only 1500 kg! To power a base and 12 people, we would need 108 such reactors, and it would weigh a total of 163 tons. That’s a significant savings, but the weight is still great.

The SpaceX spacecraft could carry up to 150 tons to Mars. This means that a few rockets could carry the entire base, supplies and the 108 Kilopower reactors needed to power the base. No need for solar power – just a colossal rocket packed to the brim with reactor and uranium. It seems safe — but the outlook here is short-term.

Long-term Mars is a different story, those reactors will last 15 years, and our Martians need more. There is uranium ore on the surface of the Red Planet that our Martians could use. But there are two problems.

First, before you can use the ore as fuel, it has to be purified, which requires a lot of industrial-scale effort and a huge amount of energy. Even if you manage to recycle nuclear fuel on Mars, we don’t know how much is there. Large amounts of uranium may have decayed in natural reactors billions of years ago. In other words, it looks like the colony will always be dependent on nuclear fuel from Earth.

As the core depletes and loses power, 108 reactors will need uranium replacement every 15 years. Each reactor needs 226 kg of uranium, that is 24400 kg, to fuel all the reactors. It is possible to do this with a single SpaceX interplanetary spacecraft, so refueling a base of 12 is feasible.

When we look at a large-scale Martian city rather than just a lonely base, the situation worsens, and Mars’ dependence on Earth becomes apparent. Let’s say that in a Martian city of 100,000 people we can reduce consumption to 10 kW per person (an estimated assumption). It would take 100,000 Kilopower reactors requiring 22,600 tons of uranium every 15 years. This, a relatively small amount of uranium. A typical terrestrial nuclear power plant consumes 4.6 times that amount.

This significant cargo fits in just over 150 ships at a time, in one go, you can send 22 uranium-loaded starships to Mars every 26 months, when Mars is as close to Earth as possible. This doesn’t even take into account the containers that would be needed to safely store the uranium, so more rockets are needed. Urban electricity bills would be excruciatingly painful.

In reality, Ilon Musk’s dream of an independent Mars is a sure thing. If the colony relies on a steady stream of nuclear fuel from Earth, how can it ever become independent? It is unlikely that Martians can trade with Earth, since there is not a single valuable resource on Mars that is not abundant on Earth. In terms of energy, Mars seems to be forever tied to Earth.

Even worse, the uranium reserves will run out. Even disregarding the leakage of fuel to Mars, at our current rate of consumption we will run out of fuel-quality uranium in just over 200 years: approximately 5.5 million metric tons of the stuff left on Earth.

Unless Mars can switch to another energy source by then, the colony will have to look elsewhere for nuclear fuel. This is difficult, even if possible. One could either recycle low-quality Martian uranium or extract other radioactive elements from the asteroid belt. Both options probably won’t be practical for another 200 years, if practicality is even possible here.

So what energy source can we use? If the colony switches to solar power and if there aren’t enough supplies, one big dust storm will kill all the people on the planet. Even with a very large solar farm and the best batteries, people would still live in fear of dust storms.

This may sound bleak, but Mars is energetically dead. There is a chance that some life exists on Mars, caught up in a small amount of chemical and planetary thermal energy, but Earth is in a different league in that sense, which is why humanity can thrive here. If we are really going to occupy Mars, we need to adapt to a low-energy environment. We can build airtight bases, even terraform the planet, but there is one thing we cannot change: there is less energy on Mars than on Earth.

There is hope, however. We know that modern society is in dire need of energy, we’ve turned into fat cats because of it, but we don’t want to live like that. Humanity is so successful because it can adapt to thrive; we can do the same on Mars.

While I have shown in this article that providing energy for a Martian base or colony is a difficult task, I have also shown that it is not impossible to solve it. We can do it. It will be difficult, but we humans are damn good at what’s difficult! So I’ll see you on Mars?

P.S. What about interplanetary internet – hence the energy to communicate? We’re not going to leave our Martian colony in an information vacuum, are we? Eternal dependence of Mars on the Earth also raises questions, is it so eternal, as the author says about it. Overall, there are many unexplored topics and unaccounted for factors, but we have a lot to talk about in the comments.

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