Solar Definition and 1000 Threads

The Maker Greetings, I saw a slew of discount solar panels and I want to use one to power my iPhone or possibly netbook. I’ve researched this but it seems the more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know. There appears to be a wide variety of charging circuits and methods...

Homework Statement The current-voltage characteristic of a photovoltaic energy converter (solar cell) shown in the attached figure can be approximated by: i = I_1(e^{v/V_{TH}} - 1) - I_2 where the first term characterizes the diode in the dark and I2 is a term that depends on light...

The will be a G2v star with the sam mass, radius and luminousity of our sun Planet 1: 0.5 Earth masses orbiting at 0.51 au Planet 2: 1 Earth masses orbiting at 0.63 au planet 3: 2 Earth masses orbiting at 0.78 au planet 4: 0.2 Earth masses orbiting at 0.85 au planet 5: 4 Earth masses...

Hello, I'm doing a project on SBSP and we have a few months to complete it, and in my written report I will be going over NASA's data they collected from their attempts. Calculating efficiencies and otheer variables between different stages of transmission, e.g. first from the sun radi to PV...

Homework Statement (a) What is the minimum speed, relative to the Sun, necessary for a spacecraft to escape the solar system if it starts at the Earth's orbit? (a) What is the minimum speed, relative to the Sun, necessary for a spacecraft to escape the solar system if it starts at the...

planets in the solar system lie almost in a plane. Is this because the sun is rotating on itself ?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23090-zoologger-the-first-solarpowered-vertebrate.html

Hey guys so this question I'm kind of stuck on, Our solar system, starting from Saturn's orbit. So I know the formula is v = sqrt(2GM/r) But not sure what to put for the mass and radius, am i including saturn and planets like uranus and neptune only or all the satellites and stuff to like...

Hello, I need some ideas for my MSc thesis. I am wanting it to be related to solar PV with the use of materials incorporating quantum mechanics. My first idea was to use quantum dots to improve solar cell efficiency, from the papers I have read there are numerous ways to achieve this, but...

what is the value for our solar constant?

Well, how big things can exist unseen? We did see Pluto - but very importantly managed to not see Eris till very recently. What else may we not see? Eris at 95 a. u. was found recently. The total luminosity of a reflective object decreases with fourth power of distance, so that we could...

Hi. I've been wondering, how could I calculate the escape velocity for a body of mass m which is a certain distance r from the center of the Earth to escape the entire solar system, assuming the distance from the center of mass (aprox. from the sun because it's about 99% of the mass of the solar...

Hi all. I have been working, off and on, on a Solar System simulator (in MS Excel) for many months. I am using the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg 8/9 8th-order integrator and JPL's initial conditions to try to reproduce an accurate model of planetary motions. This, of course, involves modeling the...

Sir, I'm an undergraduate in 'Electronics'.Intending to develop a solar simulator with LED as the light source. It is understood that the spectral irradiance of sun can not be generated with the LED.So my plan is to light up a number of high power LED arrays of different...

Homework Statement Assuming that the sun lies at the principal focus of the solar system, and given that the semi-major axis and eccentricity of Mars is 1.5237 AU and 0.0934 respectively, calculate: The distance (in AU) when Mars is closest to the Sun (known as perihelion). The angle θ=0°...

Is it possible to use solar energy to provide locomotion in Space? I appreciate that Solar sails have been mooted but is there any way that the energy from the sun can be used in such a way as to approach the source of the light?

I'm working on a thermal balance of a building. In particular, I'm trying to calculate the effect energy gains (mostly due to solar radiation) have on the inside temperature of the building. So I calculated the energy gains per month, for instance, 20 kW for the month of February (it's an...

How does the efficiency of a Thin Film solar cell compare to the efficiency of a single crystal solar cell with reference to the 5 main solar cell parameters ( Iopt , Rs, Rsh, Is and n )? I know series resistance( Rs ) will probably increase in thin film cells because of grain boundaries...

Just a thought experiment. Imagine you made scale models of the sun and the planets with the relational standard of measure being a sun the size of a basketball. Now assume that the sun and the planets were all built to scale with the appropriate diameters, densities and masses of the actual 8...

Hi, I am conducting an experiment whereby I have to measure the individual performance (on a per-cell basis) of solar cells on a solar panel. The panel has 20 cells, which are 4 strings in parallel of 5 cells in series each. The entire panel has a +V and chassis GND wire that I can open or...

I would like to understand exactly what happens when a PN doped crystalline silicon cell is shaded.Lets assume we have ten solar cells wired together in a series string.That there is plenty of sunlight on the first nine cells but cell ten is completely shaded.Lets say the forward bias of each...

Voyager spacecraft finds solar system is bigger than thought: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/telecon20121203.html http://us.cnn.com/2012/12/03/us/space-voyager-solar-system/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Hello, this is my first topic/question, thanks for reading thus far... It is very easy to find explanations about the general path that the solar system takes when it orbits the center of our galaxy, when viewed in 2D from above, a circle around the center some distance away from that center...

Hello fellow aerospace engineers and physicists, I am currently working on a project and trying to figure this out. I was wondering if you guys could help me out. Here is the problem statement: A nuclear waste disposal spacecraft is to be sent from Earth in order to carry radioactive waste...

Solar wind contains ion charges and electromagnetic field, will Solar wind affect action potential within Astronaut's nerve system? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Hi I came across this excellent forum :) I am trying to figure out the solar wobble. When only looking at the Sun+Jupiter+Saturn, my intuitive interpretation is that the Sun will go faster/wobble more at Jupiter-Saturn-conjunction, and slower at oppositions. Is this correct? If so, there...

Referring to following links, I would like to know whether Solar Radio is equal to Radio Flux or not, it seems that it describes Solar Radio in different format. Are they monitoring the same objects? Does anyone have any suggestions on what the different is between them? Thanks in...

Hi all, I am planning to connect a 20W solar panel on my services bank (via a regulator). I have made a little diagram that hopefully will make things easier. As you can see, I have two separate banks, using a common negative. In the services bank I have a NASA BM1 battery monitor connected...

Why is the solar system the way it is?

Orphan or 'rogue' planets may be common, rather than an exception, at least in the galaxy. http://news.yahoo.com/orphan-alien-planet-found-nearby-without-parent-star-122308193.html But how common?

This paper proposes a 100 solar mass black hole in nearby Orion Nebula: http://arxiv.org/abs/1209.2114 Exciting if true. I have no particular comments, just thought it should be noted here.

hi i am designing a solar tracker for my final year project. its a dual axis solar tracker with two stepper motors one rotating a shaft and the other tilting a bar. i need help on calculating forces torques and finding the FOS. can anyone help me?

The TRACE website has a solar image that is described as, quoting from the text associated with the image, "This is a false-color, 3-layer composite from the TRACE observatory showing the solar corona: the blue, green, and red channels show the 171A, 195A, and 284A, respectively. These TRACE...

Referring to following link about Solar Radio Flux, I would like to know more about Solar Radio Flux, is Solar Radio Flux different from Electric Flux? What is the major difference in term of properties of their fluxs? Does anyone have any suggested materials on what Solar Radio Flux is about...

I am a mechanical engineering B.S. graduate 3 years corporate engineering experience. I've developed a passion for solar energy over the past year. However, jobs are short for early-life engineers like me. How do I get started as an engineer in a company like FirstSolar and NanoSolar? They...

I'm new to electronics and have been looking into building a solar cell charger for NiMH batteries. I got hold of a pair of small solar panels rated at 5v open circuit voltage, and 100mA short circuit current. I confirmed this under bright sunlight with a multimeter. Each panel will easily...

I'm an engineer student and I'm trying to build such a solar heating system that it is drum with two layers, inner one is a metal (aluminium alloy I'm thinking) water container and outer layer is made of polymer, with air gap in-between. When suns come out, it radiates through the polymer and on...

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia Exoplanet Orbit Database | Exoplanet Data Explorer Numerous planets outside the Solar System have been discovered, and for some curious reason, a large number of them are around Jupiter's mass, but much closer in than one would expect. The usual theory...

Solar Winds, Space-Aged Propulsion & Plasma Beams? Hi there I'm educated the field of electrical systems & radio frequency, and I love reading about things like ion drives, hall effect thrusters and VASIMR. One thing I find quite fascinating is how the solar winds accelerate away from the sun...

I've heard many times that the universe was the size of our solar system after 1 sec. But how is this possible if nothing can travel faster than the speed of light? Are there any theories on this?

Homework Statement Formation of the Solar System The distance of Venus is about 0.7 AU, and the orbital radius of Jupiter is about 5.2 AUs. How many times hotter is the region where Venus formed compared to the region where Jupiter formed? Enter numbers and decimal point only. Round off...

i want to build an inverter with solar panel can someone assist me on how to use thyristor to buffer it,and how to connect it to the solar which is 500wattts.my inverter is 5kva

Hi all, As many of you have seen, I am thinking about spaceship trajectories. This next question falls under the same subject, but it is an entirely different question from the previous questions I have asked. Spaceships of the near future will fly in the plane of the solar system. Suppose if...

Hi all, I had an exhaustive time looking on the web for software (either free or commercial) that allows someone to simulate trips into the solar system from planets. I'm looking for something that can simulate spaceship flybys in Hohman Transfer Orbits, Gravity Assists, Oberth Effects...

Hi I'm dbmorpher For my local History fair I am basing my report on the Indutrial Evolution and it's Inventions namely the Steam Engine. I wanted to know if there was an easy way to make a steam engine that was or had... Low cost parts No fuel such as coal or wood No need for complicated...

What avg density [kg/m^3] may I attribute to solar system space dust? Halliday & Resnick give E-18 to E-21 [kg/^3]. This will allow me to compute solar system density, if I know solar system radius[m], ie, distance from edge of solar system to centre-of-mass of our Sun. By 'space dust' I mean...

Hi I am fairly new to electronics and I have a project I want to create a circuit for. I have a solar panel rated 6v 50mA. I want to make a rechargeable battery run a series of 2 or 3 bright LEDs. My question is: What voltage limit will the source need to have in order to take a charge...

Homework Statement The unit area intensity of radiation from the Sun at the photosphere is 6.33*107 W/m2. a) Check this value using the calculus of the Stefan-Boltzman Law, assuming the Sun is a blackbody emitter (\epsilon = 1) with a surface temperature of 5777K. Homework Equations...

Homework Statement Given: Consider the following: city: Córdoba, Argentina Longitude = 64 deg 10 min W Latitude = 31 deg 28 min S Time zone = GMT -3 Date = 01 August On this date, the equation of time = -6 minutes. Assume no daylight saving time (a) Determine the standard time at solar noon...

Hi, So, I understand the concept that the power radiated by the sun spreads out as a sphere with a radius equal to 1 AU. Therefore, in order to find the intensity, we have to divide the power radiated by the surface area of the sphere. I thought the result of this calculation would yield the...