Great Post! #NASA #solarpower #solarsystem #spaceexploration
Great post! #NASA #solarpower #solarsystem #spaceexploration
NASA sending solar power generator developed at Ben-Gurion U to space station
A new solar power generator prototype developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and research teams in the United States, will be deployed on the first 2020 NASA flight launch to the International Space Station.
According to research published in Optics Express, the compact, microconcentrator photovoltaic system could provide unprecedented watt per kilogram of power critical to lowering costs for private space flight.
As the total costs of a launch are decreasing, solar power systems now represent a larger fraction than ever of total system cost. Optical concentration can improve the efficiency and reduce photovoltaic power costs, but has traditionally been too bulky, massive and unreliable for space use.
Together with U.S. colleagues, Prof. (Emer.) Jeffrey Gordon of the BGU Alexandre Yersin Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, developed this first-generation prototype (1.7 mm wide) that is slightly thicker than a sheet of paper (.10 mm) and slightly larger than a U.S. quarter.
“These results lay the groundwork for future space microconcentrator photovoltaic systems and establish a realistic path to exceed 350 w/kg specific power at more than 33% power conversion efficiency by scaling down to even smaller microcells,” the researchers say. “These could serve as a drop-in replacement for existing space solar cells at a substantially lower cost.”
A second generation of more efficient solar cells now being fabricated at the U.S. Naval Research Labs is only 0.17 mm per side, 1.0 mm thick and will increase specific power even further. If successful, future arrays will be planned for private space initiatives, as well as space agencies pursuing new missions that require high power for electric propulsion and deep space missions, including to Jupiter and Saturn.
More Posts from Matthewjopdyke and Others
New Release! Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party
New Release! Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party
I am pleased to announce a NEW RELEASE to my Space Opera series. It is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats!
Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party
Autographed copies of printed material are available for direct purchase on the author website at:
https://www.ftb-pathway-publications.com
Thank you, Kim, for putting this together!
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The Universe's Brightest Lights Have Some Dark Origins
Did you know some of the brightest sources of light in the sky come from black holes in the centers of galaxies? It sounds a little contradictory, but it’s true! They may not look bright to our eyes, but satellites have spotted oodles of them across the universe.
One of those satellites is our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Fermi has found thousands of these kinds of galaxies in the 10 years it’s been operating, and there are many more out there!
Black holes are regions of space that have so much gravity that nothing - not light, not particles, nada - can escape. Most galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers - these are black holes that are hundreds of thousands to billions of times the mass of our sun - but active galactic nuclei (also called “AGN” for short, or just “active galaxies”) are surrounded by gas and dust that’s constantly falling into the black hole. As the gas and dust fall, they start to spin and form a disk. Because of the friction and other forces at work, the spinning disk starts to heat up.
The disk’s heat gets emitted as light - but not just wavelengths of it that we can see with our eyes. We see light from AGN across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from the more familiar radio and optical waves through to the more exotic X-rays and gamma rays, which we need special telescopes to spot.
About one in 10 AGN beam out jets of energetic particles, which are traveling almost as fast as light. Scientists are studying these jets to try to understand how black holes - which pull everything in with their huge amounts of gravity - somehow provide the energy needed to propel the particles in these jets.
Many of the ways we tell one type of AGN from another depend on how they’re oriented from our point of view. With radio galaxies, for example, we see the jets from the side as they’re beaming vast amounts of energy into space. Then there’s blazars, which are a type of AGN that have a jet that is pointed almost directly at Earth, which makes the AGN particularly bright.
Our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been searching the sky for gamma ray sources for 10 years. More than half (57%) of the sources it has found have been blazars. Gamma rays are useful because they can tell us a lot about how particles accelerate and how they interact with their environment.
So why do we care about AGN? We know that some AGN formed early in the history of the universe. With their enormous power, they almost certainly affected how the universe changed over time. By discovering how AGN work, we can understand better how the universe came to be the way it is now.
Fermi’s helped us learn a lot about the gamma-ray universe over the last 10 years. Learn more about Fermi and how we’re celebrating its accomplishments all year.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Nice view of Earth...
Our pale blue dot, planet Earth, is seen in this video captured by NASA astronaut Jack Fischer from his unique vantage point on the International Space Station. From 250 miles above our home planet, this time-lapse imagery takes us over the Pacific Ocean’s moon glint and above the night lights of San Francisco, CA. The thin hue of our atmosphere is visible surrounding our planet with a majestic white layer of clouds sporadically seen underneath.
The International Space Station is currently home to 6 people who are living and working in microgravity. As it orbits our planet at 17,500 miles per hour, the crew onboard is conducting important research that benefits life here on Earth.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Enjoy this First-Year-Anniversary compilation of all of my works in one title: A Cosmic Legacy: From Earth to the Stars This title includes the following works wrapped up into one story: Further Than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 1 Further Than Before: Pathway to the Stars, Part 2 Pathway to the Stars: Part 1, Vesha Celeste Pathway to the Stars: Part 2, Eliza Williams Pathway to the Stars: Part 3, James Cooper Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party Pathway to the Stars: Part 5, Amber Blythe Pathway to the Stars: Part 6, Erin Carter "Our beautiful mother world ached for a reprieve from the injustices of many, courtesy of cultures and governance systems, that forgot how to love, how to be kind, how to include others, and how to think beyond the scope of greed and power, but within the visions of shared joy and well-being." Together with the organization Eliza Williams founded, called Pathway, she and her growing team will take us on a fantastical and Utopian journey to get us out and into the farthest reaches of space. There are dilemmas such as the physiological effects of space on each of us, as well as the need for longevity and a desire to still be able to visit loved ones following long journeys. Eliza and her team develop capabilities, so we can overcome the challenges ahead and are determined to stabilize a rocky economy, wipe away suffering, violence, disease, cartels, terrorism, and trafficking in persons. They work together to tame seismic activity, weather, and fires. She and her friends tackle ways to prevent extinction and provide solutions to quality of life concerns. They even consider the longevity of our Sun and our Earth's capacity to preserve life. Eliza tackles each of these issues to get us out, and into the stars, so we can begin our biggest quest--to help our Universe breathe ever so lightly. #amazing #science #fiction #novels #best #new #books #scifi #online #read #longevity #CRISPR #physiology #neurology #physics #theoretical #philosphical #politcal #educational #STEM #AmazonAuthor #BarnesAndNobleAuthor #wellbeing #quality #biotech #nanotech #SpaceOpera #astronomy #selfpublished https://www.instagram.com/p/B2GkDbYBs0y/?igshid=ufavr7j6lsy1
(I got a little artsy for the promo videos and wanted to share...) PATHWAY TO THE STARS: PART 2, ELIZA WILLIAMS is the second in the space opera booklet series, PATHWAY TO THE STARS. "We need to understand how dark energy and dark matter work, find ways to slow down the expansion or cause the Universe to breathe just enough to protect itself and all of life along with it. We need everyone who is willing." ~ Yesha Alevtina talking with Eliza Williams The story continues, Experience the early life of our future scientific and political hero, Eliza Williams, and the beginning of a new era! Vesha Celeste continues her training and journey with Yesha Alevtina, who shows and teaches her about Eliza Williams, through complete experiential immersion in the Virtual Universe. With the added advantages of time-dilation, neural linking, and nano-technology giving her tactile-reference, she sees Eliza’s life as if she were Eliza, herself. Vesha witnesses the critical aspects that lead to Eliza’s transformation and the formation of Pathway LLC. Eliza’s work to create the first biopods for physiological and neurological optimizations will be one of her primary vehicles to drive all of her advances and designs, solar-system-wide. There is a lot for Vesha to learn, and she too will play an integral role in our journeys throughout the cosmos, as this story progresses. Each ability she experiences in others, her optimized mind will be capable of learning and expounding upon exponentially. Enjoy the second part of this space opera booklet series, as we see our team of heroes doing what they can to help humanity in their quest to save the Universe one very-important step at a time. Enjoy this continuing saga as we are introduced to Eliza Williams, a critical leader-in-the-making, in this pathway to the stars! Available in paperback on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble online. eBook available for $2.99 via Kindle eBooks. Audiobook is in the works, narrated and produced by Allison Taylor. #spaceopera #spaceoperabooks #scifibooks #scifi #fantasy #books #solarsystem #CRISPR #neuroscience #longevity #wellbeingfirst #pathwaytothestars https://www.instagram.com/p/B1YlbtWhFxK/?igshid=lovyil9nitpj
I'm very much looking forward to this. ☺
Two Webb instruments well suited for detecting exoplanet atmospheres
The best way to study the atmospheres of distant worlds with the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in late 2018, will combine two of its infrared instruments, according to a team of astronomers.
“We wanted to know which combination of observing modes (of Webb) gets you the maximum information content for the minimum cost,” says Natasha Batalha, graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics and astrobiology, Penn State, and lead scientist on this project.
“Information content is the total amount of information we can get from a planet’s atmospheric spectrum, from temperature and composition of the gas - like water and carbon dioxide - to atmospheric pressures.”
Batalha and Michael Line, assistant professor, School of Earth and Space Science, Arizona State University, developed a mathematical model to predict the quantity of information that different Webb instruments could extract about an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
Their model predicts that using a combination of two infrared instruments - the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) and the G395 mode on the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) - will provide the highest information content about an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
Read more ~ SpaceDaily
Image: Inspecting JWST’s primary mirror. Credit: NASA–C. Gunn
I am pleased to announce a NEW RELEASE to my Space Opera series. It is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats!
Pathway to the Stars: Part 4, Universal Party
Autographed copies of printed material are available for direct purchase on the author website at:
https://www.ftb-pathway-publications.com
Thank you, Kim, for putting this together!
@shanrel @delosveronesi @woodbscinpsy-blog @sonictantra @akatsuki-deidara-katsu
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Merry Christmas! I spent time with my dear and sweet Kim. Let's go #furtherthanbefore with our #pathwaytothestars where get to explore solutions to worldwide issues, directing malcontent toward a refocus of their energies to #longevity and other sciences of #physics #biotechnology and #neuroscience through entertainment that takes us on a #scifi #fantasy journey with #strongfemaleleads #strongmalerolemodels and a beautiful #spaceopera with plenty of #politicalsciencefiction in the mix. (at Gene Leahy Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrUvn5UgaEk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9frcxxv6n3t1
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