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Well, Hydrogen would be good, except the engine will probably be made of Iron or steel. These are subject to Hydrogen Embrittlement, which makes Hydrogen extremely undesirable as a working fluid.

Longboy:

I am not talking about a hot air engine, but a bona fide Stirling engine, with the working fluid contained inside. I'm thinking argon would be best, since it's fairly common in the Martian atmosphere.

Hi, everyone. I found your forum when trying to find the specifics of Sterling versus Steam power for use in an early Mars colony. On Earth, steam turbines predominate in power generation facilities. However, the economy in an early Mars colony will be much different than that of a fully industriali...