English is my second language. My native tongue is Mountain Southern learned during my first ten years in East Tennessee.
Applying my native speech to this topic, this idea must appear to be Bedbug Crazy, a technical term, to many. But if you take the time to think this through there are amazing possibilities.
Hydropower uses the difference in heights to convert potential energy into electricity. TVA’s Chickamauga Dam is my local hydropower facility. Generating up to 142 Megawatts, it is my favorite picnic spot.
The 140 Megawatts of hydroelectricity is generated by water flowing through four turbines from a height of about 50 feet or 15 meters. Imagine how much electricity you could generate with a difference in height of 40,000 feet or 12,000 meters? My research indicates that might be the differential in height between Mars’ South Pole and the bottom of Valles Marineris near Mars’ equator.
How do we get the water, in liquid state from the South Pole to Valles Marineris, early estimates are a distance of approximately 5,000 miles or 8,000 km? Doing this on Earth is only remotely possible for the Indians or the Chinese. But can you imagine doing the project on Mars with thousands of iBots all networked together to complete the project, at a profit in five years? The project could create much more than just pipelines, building an infrastructure corridor providing power, water and CO2, and transportation to ignite growth along its path.
Interested? Click here to download a first pass at thinking this through.
iBots on Mars 