How can future lunar astronauts have power on a future lunar settlement without needing to have it delivered from Earth? This is what a recent study published in Device hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated using lunar dust (commonly known as regolith) to create solar cells that could power a future lunar settlement. This study has the potential to help researchers, engineers, mission planners, astronauts, and the public better understand how lunar resources could be used to supply future lunar settlements without the need for resupply from Earth.
For the study, the researchers melted simulated lunar regolith and combined it with perovskite, which are used for the sunlight to electricity conversion. They not only discovered that these new solar cells could create 100 more energy than traditional solar cells for every gram of the material sent to space, but that launch costs and mass to the Moon could be reduced by 99 percent and 99.4 percent, respectively. For now, the team was only able to achieve 10 percent energy efficiency but aspire to achieve 23 percent efficiency. By increasing efficiency and enabling future astronauts to construct their own solar cells on the Moon, the researchers hypothesize that launch costs could significantly decrease over the long term.
“The solar cells used in space now are amazing, reaching efficiencies of 30% to even 40%, but that efficiency comes with a price,” said Dr. Felix Lang, who is the Head of the (Radiation-) Tolerant Electronics with Soft Semiconductors (ROSI) Group at the University of Potsdam and a co-author on the study. “They are very expensive and are relatively heavy because they use glass or a thick foil as cover. It’s hard to justify lifting all these cells into space.”
The practice of using existing materials on a planetary body without needing resupply from Earth is known as in situ resource utilization (ISRU). It is a rapidly developing field designed to help future astronauts traveling to the Moon and Mars “live off the land” while relying significantly less on resupplies from Earth for their survival.
How will lunar resources help build solar cells on the Moon in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Device, EurekAlert!
