Could someone please provide information in DETAIL about how can
electricity be produced in a space settlement???Please make sure it is
from a reliable source.
PLEASE HELP ME on this topic.
step 1 Build a large mirror,
step 2 stick an external combustion engine
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_combustion_engine) at the focal
point,
step 3 connect a generator to the engine to generate electricity,
step 4 connect to habitat
step 5 point mirror towards sun.
space.settler wrote:
Actually, Gerard K. O'Neill wrote that electricty for space
settlements would be generated through banks of solar panels built
for each colony. Just like what the International Space Station uses
today.
>
> step 1 Build a large mirror,
> step 2 stick an external combustion engine
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_combustion_engine) at the
focal
> point,
> step 3 connect a generator to the engine to generate electricity,
> step 4 connect to habitat
> step 5 point mirror towards sun.
>
> Source - Gerard K O'Neill. The High Frontier
>
> space.settler wrote:
> >
> > Could someone please provide information in DETAIL about how can
> > electricity be produced in a space settlement???Please make sure
it is
> > from a reliable source.
> > PLEASE HELP ME on this topic.
> >
4/06/2008 4:40 PM
The High Frontier - edition 3. Chapter 4 pages 32 and 33 (just for one
example)
compares the use of lightweight mirrors with a turbogenerator plants to
similar ground based plants, nuclear plants, coal plants, hydroelectric
plants etc.
looking for other mentions but I seem to recall frequent mentions in
both the high frontier and 2081 of (paraphrased) "need more energy ?
build a bigger mirror"
PV cells require high tech plants, all of which are at the bottom of a
gravity well. Mirrors and using thermal energy is fairly low tech by
comparison and are more suitable to being made from in space resources
(my thoughts and phrasing)
bonello_joseph wrote:
On Jun 6, 2008, at 9:45 AM, b wrote:
> gravity well.
>
Unless they're not, of course. Space settlements require substantial
lunar and cislunar infrastructure anyway, and PV cells can be made
from fairly low-tech processes out of materials that are readily
available on the Moon. That's almost certainly where your solar cells
are going to come from by the time we could build space settlements.
Solar thermal is reasonable too, but involves working fluids and
moving parts, and so is more prone to break-down. There are pros and
cons to both approaches, and market forces will work it out when the
time comes.
Best,
- Joe
There are a huge number of ways to power a space settlement. The
solar-driven Stirling engines are one, photovoltaics are another, the
rotating settlement in the charged solar wind means the whole thing
could be a generator, even nuclear power could be used or, once
asteroidal resources come in, the burning of carbon fuels with oxygen.
All of these could be done, and more.
disagree. I rather like the Stirling engines myself, but have to
admit that PV has some things going for it. And no longer do they
have to come out of some expensive clean room sitting on Earth.
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/printable_solar_power.php
http://www.idtechex.com/printedelectronicsworld/articles/fujifilm_dimatix_show_inkjet_technology_to_manufacture_pv_solar_cells_00000869.asp
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=2156