On: Elon Musk is boring a tunnel to skirt gridlock

[asendra]

And solar panels. And electric vehicles..

[wolfram74 → asendra]

Note though that solar panels are half as effective on mars given it's distance to the sun, nuclear is even more important on Mars than on Earth.

[benchaney → wolfram74]

True, but there is a ton of open space on mars. They can just cover more area to make up for it. Plus the lack of real weather would make the solar panels more consistent.

[pitt1980 → wolfram74]

is that true? how much effectiveness are you gaining with the thinner atmosphere?

[hxegon → pitt1980]

Definitely not as much as you are losing to the inverse square law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Light_and_o...

[Symmetry → pitt1980]

It's about 40% of Earth's surface before accounting for the thinner atmosphere and about 60% after.