IN SITU PRODUCTION OF FUEL AND OXIDANT FOR A SMALL SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL ON MARS

摘要

The interest in the exploration of Mars has been rising in the last decades. Regular explorative missions are scheduled in the next twenty years with the aim to collect detailed information on its climatic and geological characteristics. An energy storage system based on the use of carbon dioxide, the most abundant component of the Martian atmosphere, would theoretically assure an indefinite lifetime to scientific landers and rovers, therefore permitting the acquisition of a deeper knowledge of the planet's environment. Following a preliminary feasibility study, started in 1999, an experimental research about the photocatalytic decomposition of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen, to run a solid oxide fuel cell on Mars, is under development. The progress achieved so far is described in this paper.