  Exploration of the Red Planet is essential on the way through both human
colonization and establishing a habitat on the planet. Due to the high costs of
space missions, the use of distributed sensor networks has been investigated to
make in situ explorations affordable. Along with this, the devices with
ultra-low-power receivers, which are called zero-energy (ZE) devices, can pave
the way to further discoveries about the environment of Mars. This study
focuses on wireless power transmission to provide the power required by ZE
devices on the Martian surface. The main motivation of this study is to
investigate whether conventional harvesters and communication units can supply
the required power for a long distance. The numerical results show that it is
possible to deliver power to ZE devices without utilizing any sophisticated
hardware. In addition, the effects of pointing error and dust storms on
harvesting performance are investigated. Comprehensive simulation results
reveal that harvester selection and design should be done by considering
propagation channel and transmitter characteristics.
