And if you were floating in it shaded from the sun you'd freeze to death. It's something like talking about the temperature of the air in a vacuum chamber. There is _always_ air in a vacuum chamber and it'll have a temperature, and that temperature will mean different things than normal intuition gives.

Similar to wind speeds on Mars, you read about hurricane speeds of 200mph+ then remember with the low density that would feel like a fairly strong breeze to a human standing there.

The problem with the storms is dust and blocking of the sun.

Planet wide storms have been recorded, that bodes poorly for solar powered installations without significant battery backup.

Considering how well the mars rovers have done with just a few panels the dust issue is definitely surmountable.

But that's partly luck: the panels get somewhat cleaned by passing dust devils. Didn't Spirit end up freezing to death, after it got bogged down?

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_(rover)#Mars_winter_at_... yes: normally they'd park it on a south-facing slope to maximize insolation during the winter, but it was stuck on flat ground.

Well, there's always alternative power sources, like on Curiosity.

Really? I thought vacuum was an excellent insulator. Seems like the normal 75-100 watts should be plenty. After all a vacuum sealed thermos keeps hot coffee warm for days and has a much worse surface to volume ratio.