Living In Space: Energy

A detailed Summary of Living In Space: Energy

Space is filled with radiant energy and beyond earth's atmosphere this energy flow more steadily and more intensely from the sun than that which penetrates to the surface of the Earth. So an abundant and essential source of energy that would be used in space for the space colony would be solar radiation by developing satellite solar power stations.

To live in space, humans must be protected from the fierce intensity and penetrating wavelengths of unattenuated sunlight, but this same energy is one of the primary resources of space. The colony will have to have enough energy to maintain a fairly uniform temperature even

though it is apace. The sun shines twenty-four hours a day and is not dimmed by an atmosphere. Shaded materials not exposed to direct sunlight will almost be at absolute zero. While the temperature in closed bodies exposed to the sun can soar above the boiling point. The colony will need to have both heaters and air conditioners. On the other hand, this sun's energy can be converted into electricity in the colonies. It will be converted with ten percent efficiency to electrical power which is sold at a rate of .012 kw/hr, a square kilometre of space would return more than $14,000,000 ea

In space sunlight is a pretty diffuse form of energy and that could cause some problems. Even if we could convert sunlight to electricity at one-hundred percent efficiency, it would take a sheet about three feet on a side to power an ordinary toaster. This is why designers of solar power satellites are driven to talk about very large structures. Solar cells can never convert all of the sunlight that falls on them to electricity. The reasons for this is depended on the basic laws of physics. Only about one-third of the sunlight falling on a cell comes in forms whose energy is not great enough to move the electron. This means that one-third of the sunlight hitting the cell will never get converted into electrical energy, but will just heat the cell.

The key product in the solar power stations is solar cells, which does the actual converting of energy into electricity. A useful material is found in lunar soil is silicon which is used to make solar cells. So we can produce a large amount of these cells and then we can avoid any problems of shipping the material from earth. Cells convert sunlight directly into electricity and this could be used to supply the electricity for the construction and operation of the space colony. It would be simple to put together large scale solar collectors and mirrors around the colony. A solar cell is made from two thin layers of

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Approximate Word count = 922
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science