False gold and atomic fission.. Ambitious ideas for generating energy on the moon
Humanity is heading again to the moon, and this time planning to survive, but astronauts in their long-term missions will need infrastructure to live, work, move and communicate with Earth, and produce the oxygen and water necessary to survive, and transporting all of this from Earth to the Moon is very expensive, so Instead, we need to figure out how to make it on the moon.
pyrite crystal
Scientists presented many ideas, including some ambitious, such as the idea of using pyrite crystal (false gold), which is only 400 millimeters in size, and is used to make small solar cells, and scientists believe that it can be a promising future source of energy on the moon.
As a report published on the Scitechdaily website on December 5th said, working with the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, the European Space Agency (ESA) has studied the production of sandpaper-like coils. of these micro-crystals as a base for monolayer solar cells.
“We are looking at these micro-crystals in the context of future lunar settlement,” explains Advinit Makaya, an advanced manufacturing engineer at the European Space Agency. “Future lunar bases will need to live independently of Earth in order to be sustainable, and the necessary iron and sulfur can be extracted.” To produce pyrite from the lunar surface.
Dr. Tavi Radke told Sci Tech Daily that their goal is to "develop a technology to make micro-crystals of pyrite and use them in a single-layer solar cell, where each small crystal acts as an individual solar cell," explaining that "the amount of energy generated by one cell is not enough but in A normal-sized unit would have billions of these cells, and in principle there are no restrictions in terms of their size and shape.
In addition, we have a goal that all the necessary materials can be obtained from the surface of the moon.”
For his part, Macaya adds that "this is just one of a group of ways to use resources in the location that the European Space Agency is looking for the moon or beyond," and the availability of energy is an important factor in choosing the location of a future lunar base, for example, it is preferable to choose the south pole of the moon, Because of the "peaks of eternal light" where solar energy is available almost continuously, at the lower latitudes of the moon, astronauts will have to live with nights of up to two weeks.
nuclear fission
In the same context, the US space agency “NASA” (NASA) has been working for years on a project to generate energy on the lunar surface. Within the framework of the “Artemis” program led by the agency, astronauts will return to the lunar environment by 2024, with the aim of creating Finally, a long-term human presence on the moon, after an absence since 1972, the date of the last human mission to the moon.
A report published in Science Alert on November 22 said that while any number of creative solutions may be able to help solve this problem, for many years NASA has considered nuclear fission to It is the most practical energy option for future astronaut colonies.
The US space agency is now taking the next step in building a nuclear reactor on the moon in cooperation with the US Department of Energy (DOE), with the two organizations now offering a call to US industry partners to submit the design for nuclear fission power systems that could operate on the lunar surface and be Ready to be launched and proven on the Moon within a decade.
According to NASA, a small, lightweight fission system capable of operating on a lunar lander or rover could provide up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power, which would be enough to meet the electricity requirements of many average homes.
In the context of lunar operations, energy use will be different from what families on Earth require, such as operating life support systems, charging lunar vehicles, and helping scientists conduct experiments.
According to the NASA and Department of Energy briefing, future fission systems will eventually need to produce at least 40 kilowatts of power, which NASA says could power nearly 30 homes for up to 10 years.
Source: Science Alert + Websites + NASA
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