A Trade Study of Lunar Power Plant Technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.386Abstract
With future plans to return to the Moon in the next few years over the course of the NASA Artemis missions, as well as other government and private ventures, it is critical to assess different power sources for a permanent lunar base. Here, we detail a power source with the lowest upfront and per-unit cost while remaining safe and reliable, assuming a lunar base on the
rim of the Shackleton Crater on the South Pole, with a capacity of 8 astronauts, and a mission duration of ten years. Here, power sources are analytically assessed by assigning rankings for each power source based on these metrics, a common technique referred to as a design matrix [1]. Ranked on a 0 to 10 scale for each power source, the five metrics used in this paper are: (1) total cost, (2) safety, (3) reliability, (4) technological readiness, and (5) miscellaneous factors like
scalability. Analyzed power sources include conventional options such as solar panels with batteries or a nuclear fission reactor, developing solutions such as nuclear fusion, and unorthodox solutions such as laser beaming. Using this design matrix, mirrors in high, polar lunar orbit constantly reflecting sunlight onto a collector system below was found to be the best solution out of the analyzed power sources.
References
A. Rai Kotedadi, Power Generation System For Lunar Habitat. 2020. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24018.58567.
M. Kaczmarzyk and M. Musiał, “Parametric Study of a Lunar Base Power Systems,” Energies, vol. 14, no. 4, Art. no. 4, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.3390/en14041141.
“Manufacture of solar cells on the moon | Request PDF.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224618289_Manufacture_of_solar_cells_on_the_moon (accessed Aug. 27, 2023).
R. Waldron, “Lunar Base Power Requirements, Options & Growth,” Eng. Constr. Oper. Space II, 1990, Accessed: Aug. 26, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Lunar-Base-Power-Requirements%2C-Options-%26-Growth-Waldron/b7e95959347a17941284d29a74c9ccf9c1717d8e
M. F. Palos, P. Serra, S. Fereres, K. Stephenson, and R. González-Cinca, “Lunar ISRU energy storage and electricity generation,” Acta Astronaut., vol. 170, pp. 412–420, May 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.02.005.
B. Diouf and R. Pode, “Potential of lithium-ion batteries in renewable energy,” Renew. Energy, vol. 76, pp. 375–380, Apr. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.11.058.
M. F. MacKay, D. S. MacKay, M. B. Duke, USA, and American Society for Engineering Education, Eds., Space resources: technical papers derived from a NASA-ASEE summer study held at the California Space Institute in 1984. in NASA-SP, no. 509. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Scientific and Technical Information Program, 1992.
J. Harbaugh, “Fission Surface Power,” NASA, May 06, 2021. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/fission-surface-power/index.html (accessed Aug. 27, 2023).
D. M. Duffy, “Fusion power: a challenge for materials science,” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Math. Phys. Eng. Sci., vol. 368, no. 1923, pp. 3315–3328, Jul. 2010, doi: 10.1098/rsta.2010.0060.
“LUNA RING, Solar Power Generation on the Moon | Topics | Shimizu Corporation.” https://www.shimz.co.jp/en/topics/dream/content02/ (accessed Aug. 27, 2023).
J. O. Elliott, “Lunar Fission Surface Power System Design and Implementation Concept,” in AIP Conference Proceedings, Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA): AIP, 2006, pp. 942–952. doi: 10.1063/1.2169276.
“Lunar Living: NASA’s Artemis Base Camp Concept – Artemis,” Oct. 28, 2020. https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2020/10/28/lunar-living-nasas-artemis-base-camp-concept/ (accessed Aug. 27, 2023).
J. Sheffield et al., “Cost Assessment of a Generic Magnetic Fusion Reactor,” Fusion Technol., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 199–249, Mar. 1986, doi: 10.13182/FST9-2-199.
E. Kennedy, G. Byrne, and D. N. Collins, “A review of the use of high power diode lasers in surface hardening,” J. Mater. Process. Technol., vol. 155–156, pp. 1855–1860, Nov. 2004, doi: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2004.04.276.
Y. Du and J. E. Parsons, “Update on the Cost of Nuclear Power,” SSRN Electron. J., 2009, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1470903.
K. Jin and W. Zhou, “Wireless Laser Power Transmission: A Review of Recent Progress,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 3842–3859, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2853156.
S. M. Davis and N. Yilmaz, “Advances in Hypergolic Propellants: Ignition, Hydrazine, and Hydrogen Peroxide Research,” Adv. Aerosp. Eng., vol. 2014, pp. 1–9, Sep. 2014, doi: 10.1155/2014/729313.
B. Hellsing, B. Kasemo, and V. P. Zhdanov, “Kinetics of the hydrogen-oxygen reaction on platinum,” J. Catal., vol. 132, no. 1, pp. 210–228, Nov. 1991, doi: 10.1016/0021-9517(91)90258-6.
K. Burke, “Fuel Cells for Space Science Applications,” in 1st International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC), Portsmouth, Virginia: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Aug. 2003. doi: 10.2514/6.2003-5938.
P. J. Schubert et al., “Analysis of a Novel SPS Configuration Enabled by Lunar ISRU,” in AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition, Pasadena, California: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Aug. 2015. doi: 10.2514/6.2015-4648.
Hanford, Anthony J. "Subsystem Details for the Fiscal Year 2004 Advanced Life Support Research and Technology Development Metric." (2006).
“Water Tower Design Services in San Antonio TX | Dunham Engineering,” Jun. 01, 2023. https://dunhamengineering.com/resources/water-tower-design-services-in-san-antonio-tx/, (accessed Aug. 27, 2023).
J. V. Henrickson and A. Stoica, "Reflector placement for providing near-continuous solar power to robots in Shackleton Crater," 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 2017, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1109/AERO.2017.7943944.
J. V. Henrickson and A. Stoica, "Optimal placement of solar reflectors at the lunar south pole," 2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Budapest, Hungary, 2016, pp. 002006-002011, doi: 10.1109/SMC.2016.7844535.
N. S. Fatemi, H. E. Pollard, H. Q. Hou and P. R. Sharps, "Solar array trades between very high-efficiency multi-junction and Si space solar cells," Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000 (Cat. No.00CH37036), Anchorage, AK, USA, 2000, pp. 1083-1086, doi: 10.1109/PVSC.2000.916075.
W. -C. Lih, J. -H. Yen, F. -H. Shieh and Y. -M. Liao, "Second Use of Retired Lithium-ion Battery Packs from Electric Vehicles: Technological Challenges, Cost Analysis and Optimal Business Model," 2012 International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control, Taichung, Taiwan, 2012, pp. 381-384, doi: 10.1109/IS3C.2012.103.
Selby, J. E. A., and McClatchey, R. A.. Atmospheric Transmittance from 0.25 to 28.5 Um: Computer Code LOWTRAN 3. United States, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Air Force Systems Command, United States Air Force, 1975.
“Sustainability | Free Full-Text | Fuel Cell Power Systems for Maritime Applications: Progress and Perspectives.” https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1213 (accessed Jul. 22, 2023).
Kenneth Burke. "Fuel Cells for Space Science Applications," AIAA 2003-5938. 1st International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC). August 2003.
R. J. D. Young, Second Beamed Space-power Workshop: Proceedings of a Workshop Sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Held at NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia, February 28-March 2, 1989. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Scientific and Technical Information Division, 1989.
Harbaugh, Jennifer. “SLS Block 1 Crew, Block 1B Crew, Block 1B Cargo and Block 2 Cargo.” NASA, NASA, 19 Oct. 2015, www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/sls-vehicle-evolution.html.
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Yashas Khattar, Cody Waldecker
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.