Questions tagged [power]
Questions regarding energy used to operate a mechanical or electrical device.
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Power System Design [closed]
As already asked in this platform that I am designing a mission to the Moon for which I want its mathematics background but somehow it's a lengthy procedure to be answered on this Platform because we ...
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1answer
518 views
Why are RTGs so inefficient?
I recently learned about how an n-type and p-type "sandwich" with different thermal properties can create a potential difference in the presence of a temperature gradient. The subsequent ...
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83 views
What are the Basics of CubeSat Power Supplies and Systems?
I am going to go ahead and apologize for my ignorance surrounding this topic, as my background is Aerodynamics, and not Electrical Engineering. From what I understand, CubeSats typically generate ...
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Are power nuclear reactors (including advanced designs) really vastly less “aggressive” in design than NTR cores?
It is my understanding that solid-core nuclear thermal rocket reactors are extremely aggressive designs that operate at the limits of materials and have an incredibly high specific thermal power.
Do ...
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82 views
Which fuel cell fuels have been demonstrated in space?
Combination of fuel cells and electric motors - whether it has been used as part of an electric pump-fed cycles? gives a short summary of fuel cells and lists the following energy-containing fuels ...
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Why exactly does Curiosity's RTG make more electricity on cold days?
There is a fascinating factoid in this answer to MMRTG- thermal and electrical output:
The electric power of the thermocouples depends on cooling influenced by the environment. On a cold day on Mars ...
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Electrical power requirements for Starship or Falcon 9
Anybody know where one could dig up electrical requirements for Starship? In other words, if Starship were sitting on the launch pad drawing power prior to launch, what would the load be?
I imagine ...
2
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At what incline would curiosity require twice the electrical power to drive compared to a flat grade?
Motors have losses and friction, and compaction of soil by a rovers wheels are lossy as well. Driving over bumps/topography requires extra work going up that isn't recovered when going back down.
The ...
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254 views
How are the Curiosity rover's batteries doing after all these years (and all these cycles)? Have they degraded significantly?
Curiosity has spent 2820 sols on Mars and this answer to About how long will Curiosity last on its nuclear power? points out that its batteries may wear out faster than its RTG.
Question: How are ...
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HDEV Goodbye Video- similar projects planned?
I just found that nice "Goodbye HDEV" video on the Columbus-Eye-Projekt-Webpage. (http://columbuseye.rub.de/)
Seems like the HDEV-housing is already burned during re-entry.
Does anyone know ...
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1answer
128 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 ...
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What are the power specifications for Curiosity's 6 driving motors and the voltages of the two batteries, and what are the sources?
To calculate the maximum travel time for Curiosity without recharging its batteries, I would like to know the power specifications for its driving motors.
And we need to know how much energy can be ...
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522 views
Could a thermal nuclear propulsion double as a nuclear reactor?
Nuclear thermal propulsion takes hydrogen and introduces it to enriched uranium that then heats up the gas and expels it to create thrust. Could you use also use the uranium to heat up water instead ...
2
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1answer
105 views
Using recent technology, how much electrical power could a nuclear reactor launchable by a low-level heavy-lift vehicle be developed to produce?
The main purpose behind asking this question is to ascertain the potential power-to-weight ratio of reactors built using modern-derivative technology (i.e. either Generation III derivatives or ...
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Antenna required to reach titan
There are two 12U cubesats, one in Earth orbit and one in orbit around Titan. They have a transmit power of 700 W (for short periods) and have identical antennas.
What diameter and what type of ...
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1answer
162 views
Exchange diameter for power in parabolic antenna
If I want to reduce the diameter of a satellite dish, how much power should I add to the transmitter? how is this formula? As I have already been informed a little in this other question I asked: X-...
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1answer
268 views
Does NASA really report the power of rockets in horsepower?
On a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson said:
And to this day NASA will still report the power of rockets in horsepower, which is completely absurd, ...
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216 views
How many “main” batteries does the ISS have? How many are still nickel-hydrogen?
CBS News's Third all-female spacewalk completes job of swapping out batteries says:
NASA is in the process of replacing 48 older-generation nickel-hydrogen batteries in the station's solar power ...
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Mass of a circumlunar power transmission line?
The most easily available power source on the Moon is solar power. This has the obvious drawback that the night is two weeks long, during which you would probably still need power for a base to ...
asked Jan 15 '20 at 23:25
SE - stop firing the good guys
28.6k2 gold badges96 silver badges170 bronze badges
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Is there a tool for modeling what power requirements different satellite modules have?
Reading about FADsat made me think of this because it does exactly that. Maybe a better question is does anyone know of a tool like FADsat?
4
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1answer
382 views
What was the transmitting power of the Apollo astronauts' PLSS VHF radio transmitters?
I'm assuming many of you are familiar with Larry Baysinger. A radio amateur who independently detected and recorded the transmissions from the Apollo 11 EVA using a homemade antenna.
Larry Baysinger ...
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2answers
235 views
How hot was the surface of RTG radiator which powered ALSEP on Apollo-12?
The last 5 Apollo missions that landed on the moon (starting from Apollo-12) deployed Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) which was powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG)
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Ion Drives specific impulse somewhat of a false economy?
I've been working through a thought experiment with a friend of mine, with some of my previous questions already being (very helpfully) answered on here :)
Here's the current issue I have though - ...
4
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1answer
240 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 ...
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Power supply for StarShip?
Early renderings of the Mars Colonial Transport showed 2 fan shaped solar arrays deployed while in space. I haven seen any depictions of the StarShip with a solar array either in orbit or standing on ...
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515 views
What form of Electric Current Powers Spacecrafts - Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC)?
Almost all spacecrafts launched by humanity consist of electrical components which require electricity to run. Usually, spacecrafts are either powered by a Solar Panel or using Radioisotope ...
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How strong would a magnetic field have to be to protect interplanetary craft?
The following suggests that this is a possible idea to protect crew on interstellar space flight:
Is NASA doing research on "mini-magnetospheres" to protect crew from radiation in space?
...
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135 views
Has any mission to Titan tested the idea of producing electricity from Saturn's magnetic field?
From an answer to Astronomy SE question How does Titan maintain the atmosphere
And we know the idea of generating electricity with a coil orbiting through a planet's magnetic field is sound in ...
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2answers
115 views
What is the ideal propulsion for an inner solar system spacecraft?
I've seen the X3 ion thruster named as the future for traveling between planets. Would the ideal spacecraft have only one propulsion? Or would it have multiple sources such as hydrazine and solar ...
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Have nuclear reactors been used in space [duplicate]
Have nuclear reactors ever been used in space as a way for power, instead of solar panels? If not, have any plans for one ever been made?
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1answer
244 views
What is the current status of Stirling engine-based radioisotope generator technology?
@Heopps' cool answer to the question Any proposed missions to explore the black liquid on Titan? Technical challenges? has an interesting line:
ASRG generator was planned as compact energy source ...
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1answer
358 views
What are the ISS's eight “power channels”? How do they work?
c|net's NASA troubleshoots mysterious ISS power issue links to the NASA Blog post Crew Waits for Dragon Mission While Teams Troubleshoot Power Issue which says:
Monday morning, teams identified an ...
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2answers
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Could electricity be generated from a Martian dust storm?
This helicopter is producing static electricity from the blades moving through the dusty air.
Along with the electricity provided by wind generators could additional power be created this way from ...
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How does electrical safety system work on ISS?
Is there any possibility that the power consumption is greater than power supply on ISS? What happens (or potentially would happen) if we plug too many electric devices so that ISS couldn't handle it?
...
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1answer
327 views
How exactly does Curiosity's floating bus work, and how does it continue to operate when voltage drops from 11 to only 4 volts?
@Hobbes's answer calls attention to Emily Lakdawalla's book The Design and Engineering of Curiosity : How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job which led me to reading excerpts in several Planetary Society ...
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119 views
Why satellite’s solar panel wattage is often listed in specifications?
What is the purpose of listing the power output (Wattage) from solar panel, without the energy/power specification of batteries or other electrical storage devices?
Do satellites often use the power ...
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How did the Mir crew recover from the power outage following collision with Progress 34?
There are several accounts about how and why the collision between Mir and Progress 34 happened and that it ended in Mir being completely dark and silent:
"'For the first time I experienced a ...
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1answer
173 views
How feasible is wind energy generation on Mars? [duplicate]
Spacecrafts and rovers tend to have dust settled on their panel which leads to reduced power generation.
If wind turbines could power the instruments, then the seasonality of solar power generation ...
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What are the tradeoffs of circularly unfurling solar panel over linearly deploying solar panels?
Martian landers like Phoenix and Insight uses circularly unfurling solar panels. The regular satellites make use of linearly unfurling panels.
What are the primary reasons why linear unfurling ...
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Radioisotope thermoelectric generator behavior on reentry
The RTG has become a major source of power in places where solar power just wont cut it. but there has always been an issue with sending them into space. if the launch fails, radiation comes raining ...
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Use or tests of multimode optical fiber for cubesat battery charging or datalink while in storage, or waiting to launch?
the idea of POF or power over fiber is to couple a moderate amount of solid state laser light, say a few hundred milliWatts or even several Watts (or potentially more, but it gets more challenging), ...
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1answer
128 views
power system redundancy in launch vehicles
Is the power supply system redundant in launch vehicles?
If so, how is it achieved? For example, is there redundancy at the battery pack level or converter level?
How much battery packs will there be,...
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1answer
134 views
How will JAXA's space elevator-testing cubesat experiment work?
The Infobae article Japón inicia hoy el ambicioso proyecto de construir un ascensor espacial which translated from Spanish into English by Google says
Japan begins today the ambitious project to ...
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Have inflatable solar arrays ever been used in practice?
Was trying to find some "experimental" solar panel designs, and came across a rather fascinating design idea, inflatable solar panels. I feel like something this compact would work stupendously for a ...
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2answers
221 views
In what ways could a US-based commercial space company legally use nuclear power?
At the moment, commercial usage of space seems to be the next big 'thing' in space exploration. Much of this (tourism, commercial launch companies, etc) will likely use solar power or fuel cell ...
4
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1answer
320 views
Generating power in zero-g
When generating electricity, energy is lost to friction in mechanical bearings (e.g. turbine or generator bearings) and as heat, through resistance in transmission wires.
If you were generating ...
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297 views
What kind of power is referred to in “the…most powerful all-electric propulsion communications satellite ever produced”
The Florida Today article On second flight, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch 'brute' of a satellite from Cape describes the upcoming SpaceX launch of SES-12. Next to this tiny image of (presumably) ...
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996 views
Why was the ISS' DC vacuum cleaner replaced with an AC version? Are there “wall sockets” throughout the ISS where it's plugged in?
The question Why did Apollo spacecraft use both AC and DC equipment? Still used in present and future designs? and especially the answer there reminded me of something I'd seen in the YouTube video ...
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1answer
1k views
Cosmic rays can be new energy source [closed]
Space is filled with cosmic rays that are high-energy particles. If we could convert that energy into electric (or any other) energy, then we could use it to power a rocket anywhere in the universe. ...
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2answers
267 views
Using Kilopower without shielding
The KRUSTY reactor (the first actual test under the Kilopower project) is shown in this image.
As can be seen, about half of the mass is shielding. Suppose we were using the reactor on an umanned ...
