Future crewed missions to Mars will require sustained sources of energy, including solar, nuclear and wind energy. Using a state-of-the-art Mars general circulation model, we analyze the Martian wind potential and calculate its spatial and temporal variability. Here we show that wind speeds at several proposed landing sites are su ciently fast to provide an alternative energy source, which could be particularly important at night, at middle to polar latitudes and during dust storms. Several regions show promising wind energy resource potential.These ndings demonstrate that wind energy represents a valuable energy resource that compensates for diurnal and seasonal reductions in solar power and offers an opportunity for wind turbine technological advancement and engineering creativity with the aim of extracting more power from Mars winds. Main TextFuture crewed missions to Mars will require surface habitats and scienti c instrumentation with sustained and redundant sources of energy.Site selection and risk assessment strategies must critically assess the available energy resources on both long-term and shorter diurnal and seasonal timescales. The driving principle behind site selection for human missions to Mars thus far has centered around physical resource allocation and, in particular, the surface or near-surface availability of water ice and the distribution of volcanic lava tubes that can serve as long term habitats. Mandates to "follow the water" and " nd shelter" direct attention to regions with evidence of surface liquid water as in recurring slope lineae in the Valles Marineris, Mawrth Vallis, and midlatitudes (1-3), close to large near-subsurface ice deposits as in the Northern Hemisphere polar and midlatitudes (4-8), or within large scale magma deposits such as along the Tharsis volcanic plateaus (9,10).However, regions of scienti c interest or with the greatest diversity of physical resources may not overlap with regions with the highest energy production potential. In particular, the very characteristics that make the current class of proposed landing sites or regions attractive, including their geology, theorized mineralogical history and availability of local resources, limit traditional energy resources. For example,
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