One of the biggest challenges of travelling to and exploring Mars is that we need a stable power source while we are there. Solar will definitely play some role, but it can’t carry the full load. For that, we need nuclear power, and NASA has just unveiled their mini nuclear power plant that they hope will do the job.
When we imagine sending humans long-term to live on the surface of Mars, the moon, or other planetary bodies in the not-so-distant future, one of the primary questions is: How will we provide the colonists with power? Kilopower is a small nuclear reactor being designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in conjunction with NASA that it hopes will one day be the answer to that question.