Will it be possible to build huge power plants powered by solar energy on the surface of the moon? Engineers participating in the NASA study believe that this can be done using materials available on the lunar surface.
Will it be possible to build huge power plants powered by solar energy on the surface of the moon? Engineers participating in NASA's research believe that this can be done using materials available on the lunar surface.
The scientists, working together with NASA and industrial companies, are investigating the question of whether such a station could provide power to a lunar colony, satellites and possibly even the Earth.
The key to establishing such a station would be placing solar receiving equipment on the moon, while saving on the huge cost of launching it from Earth.
"The raw materials we need are in the soil of the moon," says physicist Alex Freundlich from the University of Houston, referring to free rocks on the soil of our cosmic neighbor. Freundlich and his colleagues who tested the lunar soil samples brought back during the Apollo mission, are sure that it contains the necessary ingredients. They also simulated the lunar dust to assess how solar cells could be made on the moon.
They believe that a robotic vehicle could melt the surface material into glass panels, and then place thin solar cells on the glass substrate. An extensive panel of such arrays would be able to generate electricity from the incoming sun's rays.
These cells will have a low utilization compared to the devices we use on Earth, says Freundlich this week, however by using a large area we will eventually be able to produce enough electricity to satisfy the consumption of a lunar base, and support production systems on the moon or even in colonies.
David Criswell, also a physicist from the University of Houston, believes that such an array could even send an electric beam to Earth. By 2050, a projected population of 10 billion people on Earth will require four times the amount of energy consumed now, he says. If a power station on the moon converted only XNUMX percent of the energy that lands on the moon into electricity, it would be able to satisfy Earth's energy requirements and still have a surplus, he states. According to him, it will indeed be an expensive operation, but given the fact that burning fossil fuel produces a lot of pollution, so a lunar base that receives enormous solar radiation and if the infrastructure is built from local materials, then the challenge seems possible, says Criswell.
According to him, prosperity for all the inhabitants of the earth requires a stable source of energy, and therefore a high priority must be given to bring humans to the understanding that a power system on the moon may be the only option for global and long-term prosperity on earth.
Freundlich, Criswell and their colleagues plan to present their findings next week (mid-October 2002) at the International Space Conference in Houston, Texas.
