A trunk print on the dusty surface of the moon
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Future lunar bases could be powered by solar cells made on site from founded moon dust.
Build objects on the moon, using Materials that are already therewould be more practical than sending them from the earth. When Felix Lang At the University of Potsdam in Germany, heard of this idea, he immediately knew what to do. “It was like:” We have to make a solar cell like this, immediately, “he said.
Two years later, the Lang team built and tested several solar cells with moon dust as ingredient. The other key component is a crystal called PEROVSKITE halogent, which contains elements such as lead, bromine and iodine, alongside long carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen molecules.
The team has melted a synthetic version of Lunar regolith – the layer of loose rocks And the dust that gives up the moon – in “moonglass”, which they then superimposed with the crystal to complete a solar cell. They did not purify the regolith, so the moonglass was less transparent than the materials in conventional solar cells. But Lang says that the best team prototypes have still reached around 12% efficiency. Plus conventional perovskite solar cells generally reach efficiency close to 26%; Lang says that computer simulations suggest that his team could reach this number in the future.
In general, Researchers agree That the solar cells of the Perovskite will surpass more traditional silicon -based devices, both in space and on earth. From a lunar point of view, the use of perovskite materials is also attractive because they can be very thin, which would reduce the weight of the material to be transported to the moon. According to team estimates, a solar cell with an area of 400 square meters would only need to do a kilogram of perovskite. This is an impressive statement, said Ian Crawford In Birkbeck, University of London.
Not having to purify the regolith is also important, as this means that no special reactor would be necessary. In fact, Lang says that a large curved mirror and sunlight could create a beam of light hot enough to make moonglass. One of his colleagues has already tested this technique on the roof of their university and saw signs of cast iron of the Régoliths, he says.
Nicholas Bennett At the University of Technology, Sydney says that, although previous studies have tried to treat the lunar regolith in transparent glass, it is the first time that a solar cell has operated in place with the less capricious moonglass. The challenge now, he says, is to do a lot of moonglass outside the laboratory. In case of success, such fusion technology could help create other elements that a lunar base may need, such as tiles, explains Crawford.
Michael Duke At the Lunar and Planetary Institute, said that the manufacture of moonglass -based solar cells will require many technological progress, from the excavation regolith to the connection of individual cells in the tables. However, if a solar cell factory was never established on the moon, it could have positive violation effects. In this futureSpatial systems and satellites could use solar cells manufactured by the Moon instead of those created on earth, because the launch of useful loads of the Moon requires less energy, he says.
Lang and his colleagues are now working to increase the efficiency of their solar cells. For example, they determine if they can improve the quality of their moonglass using magnets to choose the iron iron before melting it.
In the end, they want to extend the process to others inhabitants of dusty space. “We already think:” Can we operate this work with Mars Regolith? ” “Said Lang.
