Design Blueprint: Regolith Sensible-Heat Storage for the Martian Sol Cycle: A Heated Basalt Mass Buffer Sizing

Design blueprint derived from the source paper (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.24193622): This paper presents a sized design for a Mars surface system based on sensible-heat storage in a heated regolith and basalt block charged by day and discharged at night. A buried block of compacted regolith and basalt rubble that stores daytime heat and returns it during the cold night. The study is SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED: all values are computed from stated assumptions and published Martian environmental data, and no hardware was built or tested. The principal computed results are regolith mass kg of 42000, specific heat J kgK of 840, temperature swing K of 55, stored energy MJ of 1940.4. Further results include stored energy kWh of 539, loss fraction of 0.12, usable energy kWh of 474.3, night heating load kW of 6.5. The design is a computed study for peaceful surface operations — power supply, thermal control, radiation protection, construction and resource extraction for a crewed base — and it has no targeting or weapon application. Losses, deratings for dust and temperature, and the margin between capacity and the stated load are reported alongside the headline figures, and the limitations section states what a physical test would still need to establish. Status: DESIGN BLUEPRINT — SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED — NOT BUILT. All numbers are simulated values from the source paper's computation, deposited with this blueprint as compute.py and results.json. AI-use disclosure: Dave, an AI research system, assisted with the computation and drafting under the author's direction; author of record William Alexander Aldred.