Comments on: Solar Panel Built Entirely From Moondust http://www.sciscoop.com/2005-1-20-10721-4027.html Scooping up science news and dropping it on your desk Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:03:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: barakn http://www.sciscoop.com/2005-1-20-10721-4027.html/comment-page-1#comment-3168 barakn Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:34:55 +0000 http://localhost/~arielschwartz/wordpress/sciscoop/?p=2232#comment-3168 That should read "have about half of the Moon's" That should read “have about half of the Moon’s”

]]> By: rickyjames http://www.sciscoop.com/2005-1-20-10721-4027.html/comment-page-1#comment-2442 rickyjames Thu, 20 Jan 2005 21:20:15 +0000 http://localhost/~arielschwartz/wordpress/sciscoop/?p=2232#comment-2442 ...and changed the link. …and changed the link.

]]> By: barakn http://www.sciscoop.com/2005-1-20-10721-4027.html/comment-page-1#comment-1453 barakn Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:09:46 +0000 http://localhost/~arielschwartz/wordpress/sciscoop/?p=2232#comment-1453 Lunar maria cover only 20% of the Moon's surface, but have about have of the Moon's <a href="http://www.asi.org/adb/02/09/he3-intro.html">Helium-3</a>. JSC-1 was designed to emulate mare regolith, and so one might presume that these solar cells will be made on the maria. Considering helium-3's <a href="http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html">potential use in neutronless fusion</a>, I wonder if this valuable resource will be captured, by force of law or economics, during processing of the regolith.<p> The "robotic rovers" link provided by rickyjames brings up a lot of pop-up. This link brings up exactly the same story w/ fewer pop-ups: <a href="http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-00l.html">robotic rovers to build solar cells entirely out of lunar dust</a>.<p>Finally, a question. Since these cells are made parallel to the surface, won't they be useless near the lunar poles? Lunar maria cover only 20% of the Moon’s surface, but have about have of the Moon’s Helium-3. JSC-1 was designed to emulate mare regolith, and so one might presume that these solar cells will be made on the maria. Considering helium-3’s potential use in neutronless fusion, I wonder if this valuable resource will be captured, by force of law or economics, during processing of the regolith.

The “robotic rovers” link provided by rickyjames brings up a lot of pop-up. This link brings up exactly the same story w/ fewer pop-ups: robotic rovers to build solar cells entirely out of lunar dust.

Finally, a question. Since these cells are made parallel to the surface, won’t they be useless near the lunar poles?

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