Mars (Planet)

what could possibly go wrong by putting nuclear fissile material into a rocket and launching it into space…

It's nothing we haven't done already. We already have nuclear-powered satellites, probes, and rovers.

what makes you think that nuclear energy is any more attractive on mars than it is on earth?

It's not that nuclear energy is much more attractive -- it's that renewables on Mars are less attractive.

• Wind? Martian atmosphere is too thin to generate any meaningful power from wind -- there just isn't enough air to turn turbine blades with any significant force.

• Hydro? Complete non-starter: no flowing water available.

• Geothermal? Mars is much less geologically active than Earth -- finding a good location for geothermal is going to be much more difficult, and it's already kind of difficult on Earth.

• Solar? Your only real option, but even then, it's much less efficient than on Earth because Mars is farther away from the sun and gets less sunlight.

Every type of renewable energy is either impossible or significantly less efficient on Mars. But Nuclear power would work just as well on Mars as it does on Earth.

There's also the maintenance issue to consider. Nuclear power can be maintained by a small, well-trained crew that never needs to go outside of the power plant to do anything. But solar panels will need regular dust cleaning, which will be a labor-intensive process requiring lots of time on the surface.

Power storage is also an issue. Solar power will require huge amounts of battery banks to ensure you still have adequate power through night, winter, and dust storms. You'd have to size the solar arrays and batteries to account for the worst case scenario of a dust storm lasting all summer and going an entire Martian year with reduced energy production. But an adequately sized nuclear plant will remain adequately sized at all times, and you'd only want battery banks as an emergency backup in case something goes wrong and takes the nuclear plant temporarily offline.

Both are still viable, yes ... but for a large, permanent base, I think nuclear power is the way to go. It's easier to produce large amounts of power, easier to maintain, and the reliable steady production means you don't need significant energy storage.

An inhabited Martian base will need lots of electrical power (mostly to heat occupied compartments). It seems a lot easier to me to have one modest-sized nuclear power plant, versus enormous fields full of solar panels and huge battery banks to try and meet the same needs.