Tranquility base: Scott Kelly’s Roxborough ranch uses same power source he had aboard the space station
Astronaut Scott Kelly’s custom home in Roxborough
For 340 days in 20152016, Astronaut Scott Kelly lived aboard the International Space Station—saw the sun rise and set 16 times a day; watched the northern lights float over Europe and Asia, and Africa and Australia drift past in mere minutes. Now he’s watching the red-rock monoliths of Roxborough in northwest Douglas County from his new custom ranch—but he’s still using the same power source he had on board the ISS.
“It’s the future,” Kelly says, pointing to the seven kilowatts of solar photovoltaic panels that help power the home. “That big fusion reactor in the sky is always our most important power source.”
The system on the space station had 260,000 solar cells and was
more expensive, Kelly quips— but he says his new one is making a difference in his energy bill. He keeps the air in his 4,800-sq.-foot home at around 65 degrees during the sleep cycle, but had a July electric bill of just $120.
That 340-day ISS trip was just
part of Kelly’s 520 days in space, starting with a 1999 mission aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to service the Hubble Space Telescope. During the year-long ISS mission, his twin brother Mark Kelly, now senator from Arizona, was back on earth, giving researchers a rare chance to compare how the body changes over time in space compared to a near identical one back home—crucial to planning a Mars mission.
Kelly says his best ride ever was returning to earth aboard the Russian Soyuz—a 1970s-style craft that’s less
complicated than the shuttle was, very dependable, but gives a wild re-entry that Kelly describes as like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, on fire.
“I would love to do that last 20 minutes again,” he says.
Kelly and wife Amiko first imagined their move from Houston to Colorado as a second-home situation, but like many buyers, thought about it again during the pandemic and decided to make this permanent. Builder Pat Mundy with Parker-based Mundy Homes had already laid a foundation on the view-swept site near Roxborough State Park when the Kellys discovered it; and ordered numbers of custom changes to the plan including finish and deck upgrades and a heated driveway. Mundy, who says the astronaut was “one of the best clients you could want,” has a similar Roxborough site where he’s starting another walkout ranch; and a buyer could get involved, site included, from around $1.9 million.
Going off-grid
In a week when New Orleans is off-line in the wake of Hurricane Ida, Anne Hoskins, Chief Policy Officer at Sunrun (they did Kelly’s solar system) suggests getting one with a battery included, allowing you to generate your own power and help neighbors in case the grid goes down.
Hoskins says Colorado has around 60,000 residential solar electric systems, but only around a thousand with the battery off-grid capability. A 6-kw system similar to Kelly’s runs around $18,000 for panels and an inverter; another $5,000-plus for the battery. Costs vary by system size and incentives. Sunrun also offers lease programs that work toward a purchase over time.
“That big fusion reactor in the sky is always our most important power source.”