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Combined cooling/power generation system for long space journeys
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Topic: Combined cooling/power generation system for long space journeys (Read 1028 times)
Jet Black
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Left Field Thinker
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Combined cooling/power generation system for long space journeys
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on:
02/15/2016 08:12 pm »
I'm starting this to see if anyone is interested in determining whether the following system would be any good or not, or for that matter if it has already been thought of (probably!). it's mainly regarding long space journeys within the solar system, where there is an issue with dumping heat, but also generating electricity. Most systems seem to rely on PV, which is fine, but panels are relatively heavy and damage to a panel can take out a large area of power generation (say it's hit by a micrometeorite or something like that).
As the only ways to shift heat from a spacecraft (like SpaceX's MCT) will be either by radiation or heating something up and then dumping it. I doubt the latter would be practical on this sort of voyage or even desirable since you'll probably want to recycle as much material as you can, though you could possibly use small amounts to heat propellant a little bit. Ultimately then it comes down to radiation - I think a good system would be something like on the JWST where you have a bunch of thin shields to reflect sunlight and then pump your refrigerant on the shadow side of this. the refrigerant pipes would be blacked out and you'd probably hold them all in place using thermally conductive film/wires in the form of a net (to maximise surface area) which are themselves blacked out.
This is a bit more speculative though, but on the sun side, rather than having flat reflectors (as the JWST has) you could have concave reflectors which focus the heat down onto a generator element which works like Solucar's system in Spain - they mention steam in that, but I think more recent generations use mineral oil or something that has a high boiling point. (
http://www.power-technology.com/projects/Seville-Solar-Tower
). That way you could have very large, light light collectors focusing down on a relatively small power generating element. It may not be terribly efficient, but it wouldn't need to be as you can make your reflectors very large. Also if there is damage to your reflector, well firstly it will have minimal impact and if you really had to fix it, you could pretty much do it with tape.
Any thoughts on whether this sort of system would be feasible?
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For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman
Solman
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Re: Combined cooling/power generation system for long space journeys
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Reply #1 on:
02/15/2016 08:40 pm »
For a long time now I have been advocating solar thermal rocket propulsion which must minimize concentrator mass to get decent acceleration and since they are not 100 percent efficient they also need radiators.
To minimize mass I have suggested that the backing structure of the concentrator could be made of hollow tubes in which coolant gas or liquid would be circulated. This would also work for my other favorite tech: triple junction solar cells for concentrated sunlight. These cells have demonstrated over 40 percent efficiency at over 900 Suns meaning that they can produce hundreds of times the power per unit mass of current flat plate solar cells. Of course you need a solar concentrator and radiator. By combining these and using lightweight concentrator designs such as L Garde Co. 17 KW per kg. concentrator that has a aluminum tube backing structure it seems to me that specific power over 5 KW (electric.) per kg should be possible. This is 5 times the best thin film solar.
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Last Edit: 02/15/2016 08:43 pm by Solman
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