YouSolar’s byline is “Power Your Life. Independently.” We take that very seriously. If we promise customers an independent power system, it better be independent. Independent of utility power, independent of the time of day, and independent of temperature.

As a genuinely independent power system, the PowerBloc is a lot like a power system for Mars. Such a system must be independent, boot up, and run under any circumstances.

We expect the same of the PowerBloc here on Earth. The most difficult challenge is to boot up a system in adverse conditions – for example, when the solar array is covered with snow, when and where there is no utility power, if the boot battery has failed, or when the batteries’ electrolytes are “frozen solid”. Or all of it at the same time.

We believe the PowerBloc would have been the clear choice of The Martian.
Image Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

The PowerBloc’s new controls are designed to boot up a 250 kWh / 50 kW PowerBloc on a few watts of power.

There are many independent ways to power the PowerBloc’s system controls. There is a sequential low-power boot-up process, battery heaters, and a jump start for a flat-lined PowerBloc that might have been sitting powered down for months or even years.

As a modular and parallel system, the PowerBloc can also run if some of its modules are absent. As long as a minimum number of functional modules is present, the PowerBloc boots up and runs.

Could a PowerBloc power the first human settlement on Mars? Absolutely.