Solar Panels On The Moon

This material is a relatively new discovery and it has many advantages for solar technology.

Solar panels on the moon.

Mankins of artemis innovation. Not only is perovskite an incredible conductor of electricity but it also can be transported into space as a liquid and then printed onto panels on the moon or mars unlike silicon panels that have to be built on. The photovoltaic solar receptors on the moon would have the benefit of receiving longer hours of sunlight without the obstruction of the earth s atmosphere clouding or dust. A solar panel array placed on the moon would generate electricity during earth s nighttime hours because it is receiving direct sunlight containing photons.

Solar panels on earth are inefficient because it is dark half the time and often cloudy. Engineers lyndsey mcmillon brown and timothy peshek are leading a project to test perovskite solar cells which could be an alternative to silicon solar cells currently used in space. Courtesy of john c. After the electricity is converted into microwave beams and laser beams 20 kilometer diameter antennas would beam the power to receivers on earth.

Building solar panel satellites on the moon and then launching them into earth orbit could potentially supply electricity to all of earth. Of course this idea involves building solar panels on the moon which means we would have people on the moon all the time about six months to a year per person criswell suggests to build and maintain the repair equipment and arrays. Putting solar panels on the moon would be a very quick and easy way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. It also means shipping manufacturing equipment up to the moon.

The reflected light seen from earth does not contain a significant number of photons so in most cases moon light will not cause the panels to generate electricity. Unlike the sun the moon does not generate its own light energy. This means that they would convert the sun s energy into electricity at a much more efficient rate than pv solar panels on earth. Shimizu wants to employ a small army of robotic construction workers to install a 400 meter wide ring of solar voltaic panels along the 11 000 km lunar equator.

What people see on earth is the sun s light energy reflecting off the moon s surface. Not only will the ring s concrete. Rains and snowfall can block the sunlight and shut down the panels.