Power Plants on the Mars P/P/P : P roposals P ossibilities Szymon - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Power Plants on the Mars P/P/P : P roposals P ossibilities Szymon Moliski Erasmus Brno P roblems 2013/2014 NELE Course 1. Proposals When we are talking about power plants on the other celestial bodies, like Mars, there are basic
Szymon Moliński Erasmus Brno 2013/2014 NELE Course
When we are talking about power plants on the other celestial bodies, like Mars, there are basic questions that we must answer. 1) Why we want this? 2) What types of powers stations could we use? 3) When we can do this?
Image: http://www.skin-artists.com
MISSION TYPE OF POWER SUPPLY MAXIMUM ENERGY PRODUCED TIME OF WORKING Viking Landers RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) 30 W 1976-1982 Mars Pathfinder: Sojourner Rover Solar arrays (+ rechargeable batteries) 15 W 1997 Mars Exploration Rovers: Opportunity Solar arrays (+ rechargeable batteries) 140 W (only in sol - martian day) 2004+ Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) 110 W 2012 +
Table from Wikipedia: Future mission to Mars under study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Future_missions_2
Overview of power generation options and energy pathways for Mars surface applications. Mars: Prospective Energy and Material Resources. Prof. Viorel Badescu. Springer 2009
The comparison of surface solar energy utilisation and nuclear power generation shows that both technologies have advantages and
approaches can or should be applied in Mars surface missions cannot be
profile, the technological availability and the broader Mars exploration plans. There will certainly be missions where surface solar energy utilisation is the technology of choice, and there will also be missions where a nuclear power system will perform very favourably. The compact, robust and reliable nuclear power sources generally are a hard match for surface solar energy utilisation in mobile applications and in high-power applications where a continuous supply with electrical energy is required day and night.
Power System Options for Mars Surface Exploration: Past, Present and Future. Simon D. Fraser from: Mars: Prospective Energy and Material Resources. Prof. Viorel Badescu. Springer 2009
Image: http://www.3d-dreaming.com/2013/07/between-earth-and-sky-campus-landmark.html
We have possibilities to build fission reactor or solar array power station on the surface of the Mars. There are other concepts: solar power plants on balloons or power sattellites in the Mars
The technical solutions is not everything. Unappreciated issues are politics, culture and economy. Without them there will be no progress in the space power stations matter.
Political Economical Technical Sociological Which countries want to achive this? Benefits. Efficiency of solar arrays. Space Race. Why they want to do this? Commercial uses. Robotics. Mars One and other confusing initiatives. Democcracy and exploration - merge is impossible? New industry sector. Material science. Challenge for the Far East, not the West? Nuclear energy in space... Experiences from Earth Power Stations. Experiences from space industry.
innovative fission technology for surface power applications is far different from the familiar terrestrial nuclear power stations, which sprawl over huge tracts of land and have large structures such as cooling towers.
fission power system as a nuclear power reactor,” said Werner. “The reactor itself may be about 1 ½ feet wide by 2 ½ feet high, about the size of a carry-on suitcase. There are no cooling towers. A fission power system is a compact, reliable, safe system that may be critical to the establishment of
can be applied on Earth’s Moon,
the need for continuous power.”
The first nuclear power plants for settlements on the Moon & Mars, American Chemical Society, Press Release, August 28, 2011
There are many operational characteristics and design features inherent to fuel cell systems that make them an interesting option for a wide range of applications in space exploration. Fuel cells can be built from simple, repeating elements with few moving parts; this will make them highly reliable and long lasting even under harsh
electrical conversion efficiency will reduce mass and volume of power
significantly higher than the design targets defined for future battery and flywheel energy storage systems. Mobile mission elements could thus be equipped with a full energy supply prior to launch from a Mars surface base instead of relying on battery recharging procedures during mission time, as it would be the case with a combined photovoltaic and secondary battery power system.
On Mars, the insolation is reduced by the inverse squared Sun-Mars distance (about 1.5 AU) compared to the Earth insolation. Some studies indicated (Van Hemelrijck 1983) that the mean summer insolation on Mars lies between 150 W/m² and 240 W/m², out of about 600 W/m² of incident insolation. Using photovoltaic panels, this energy can be transformed into electricity; Photovoltaic panels currently convert about 15-25% (newest 40%) of sunlight into electricity. In addition, if DC/AC conversion is required, it would incur an additional energy penalty of 4-12%. The main disadvantage of using solar electricity on Mars surface is its limited power density, due to seasonal dust storms. So there is proposal to mitigate this deficiency by designing a balloon system for collecting solar electricity in the dust-free part of the atmosphere. This concept may be used to backup planned Martian power plants or as a primary energy sources where possible.
If we want to build power station on Mars surface, we must spare with many problems.
material to Earth orbit (!) is 20,000 $. Technology of construction. Will we send all materials to the another planet or maybe we will use 3D printing from regolith? Who will build power station: automatic systems or humans?
particles of galactic radiation, electrostatical charging of environment.
Image: Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Energetic particles can ionise atoms and displace them within their crystalline lattice. For instance solar panels on spacecraft that leave the Earth’s atmosphere lose performance due to cumulative effects of displacement damages induced by energetic particles. A large solar energetic particle event can, within some days, cause the same degradation as an entire year of operation under the effect of only galactic cosmic rays. Ionisation is often the dominant mechanism by which the performance of on board electronics degrades. Mechanical and electrical insulating properties of teflon can also be changed when the material is irradiated to high levels, as well as painting used for thermal regulation. All this decreases the life time of the equipment.
The electrical activity present in the environment near the surfaces of Mars and the moon has very different
manned and robotic planetary exploration missions. Mars is covered with a layer of dust that has been redistributed throughout the entire planet by global dust storms. Dust, levitated by these storms as well as by the frequent dust devils, is expected to be electrostatically charged due to the multiple grain collisions in the dust-laden atmosphere. Electrostatically charged dust has a large tendency to adhere to surfaces. NASA’s Mars exploration rovers have shown that atmospheric dust falling on solar panels can decrease their efficiency to the pointof rendering the rover unusable.
Dust storms on Mars surface (and Dust Devils) are very common in martian summer. Clouds of electrostaticaly charged particles covers entire planet, solar arrays will be not usable in such place.