Questions tagged [fuel-cell]
Questions regarding the use of fuel cells (devices that consume fuel and oxidizer and produce electricity) for power generation on spacecraft.
7
questions
8
votes
1answer
98 views
ULA's ACES upper stage with IVF - Why are they using internal combustion engines?
I recently read out about ULA's ACES (Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage) upper stage with IVF (Integrated Vehicle Fluids), which crazy as it sounds, has two six-cylinder engines developed by Roush that ...
4
votes
1answer
181 views
Are there fuel cells for methane + oxygen? Could there be?
Hydrogen + oxygen fuel cells powered the week-long Apollo missions to the Moon and Shuttle missions to orbit, and there is a industry trying to build itself around hydrogen-fed fuel cell-based road ...
7
votes
2answers
365 views
Loading tanks for supercritical oxygen and hydrogen on the launch pad, how to achieve low temperature and high pressure?
The Apollo and Shuttle spacecrafts used fuel cells for the production of electric energy and water. The hydrogen and oxygen for the fuel cells were stored as a supercritical fluid at a temperature ...
4
votes
0answers
158 views
Are there examples of a spacecraft designed for transitions from supercritical to liquid+gas mixtures?
The question What happens when supercritical fuel tanks deplete below critical point? suggests some possible scenarios when the pressure of a tank is in danger of dropping below the supercritical ...
3
votes
1answer
130 views
Why did the Soyuz 7K-LOK use fuel cells rather than solar panels?
The Soyuz 7K-LOK, a heavily-modified derivative of the 7K-OK, was to have been the Soviet equivalent of the Apollo CSM, taking two cosmonauts to lunar orbit (from where one would transfer to the LK ...
14
votes
5answers
1k views
If LOX/LH2 were used in a fuel cell powering an ion engine could it provide a greater delta-v than with a conventional engine?
Question: If LOX/LH2 were used in a fuel cell powering an ion engine could it provide a greater delta-v than with a conventional engine?
Conditions:
Start in space in a stable heliocentric orbit (no ...
23
votes
3answers
4k views
Why didn't Gemini, Apollo or STS use solar panels?
Short-duration flights (Vostok, Voskhod, Mercury) use several-kWh batteries. Space stations use photovoltaic cells for their high power-to-weight ratio.
The longest mission duration accomplished with ...
