Building Solar Panels On The Moon

The architecture included the chinese characters for sun and moon.

Building solar panels on the moon.

This past march lewis weber a then high school senior in california came up with a radical plan. What people see on earth is the sun s light energy reflecting off the moon s surface. Microwave beams would be used to send the energy back towards earth from the moon. Courtesy of john c.

Mankins of artemis innovation. They have installed a 5000 square meter solar panel array on the building complex. Building solar panel satellites on the moon and then launching them into earth orbit could potentially supply electricity to all of earth. When solar panels are orbiting earth they enjoy 24 hours of unfiltered sunshine every day upping their productivity.

Unlike the sun the moon does not generate its own light energy. Building solar panels in space might be as easy as clicking print engineers lyndsey mcmillon brown and timothy peshek lead the study on perovskites a material that could generate enough power to sustain lunar habitats. Solar panels have become much cheaper in recent years. 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.

They have also become much more efficient they produce more electrical power from the sunlight falling on them. Research from the qian xuesen laboratory of space technology in china shows that solar power generated on the moon can supply future lunar bases with plenty of energy to spare. Once out there they could convert that solar radiation into electricity just as existing solar panels do and then into microwave beams using the same principle as your kitchen appliance. The building will procure 95 of its energy needs from alternative energy sources.

A solar panel array placed on the moon would generate electricity during earth s nighttime hours because it is receiving direct sunlight containing photons. The solar building has a white exterior that represents clean energy. Not only will the ring s concrete. Solar power on the moon is when a solar power system collects solar energy from the surface of the moon and then transports the energy to receivers on earth to be eventually used as electricity.

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. Self replicating solar panels on the moon.