- #1
Alfred2011
- 14
- 0
Curious your thoughts about the use of a Stirling engine to power a space station, auxiliary power for space ships inside the inner solar system, and power for space colonies in the inner solar system.
I think a Stirling engine would be great to generate an electrical field, and thus provide power. The vacuum of space is the perfect place for such an engine. As the Stirling requires only a confined gas and a difference in temperature to operate, and the vacuum of space is a great heat sink, the Stirling would require only a heat source, like the sun (using a parabolic mirror to focus the suns rays on the rod end of a Stirling engine), and the cooling fin section around the cylinder would radiate heat away in the cooling section.
I submitted this idea to NASA decades ago, and they still use batteries or radioactive decay as a method to power spacecraft . This technique could easily work for the space station, or other human occupied settlement or craft while within the inner solar system. It only requires a computerized control system to control the orientation of the parabolic mirror so that the heated end stays facing the sun, and the cooled end would be in the shadow of the parabolic mirror focusing its rays on the heated end.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm
I think a Stirling engine would be great to generate an electrical field, and thus provide power. The vacuum of space is the perfect place for such an engine. As the Stirling requires only a confined gas and a difference in temperature to operate, and the vacuum of space is a great heat sink, the Stirling would require only a heat source, like the sun (using a parabolic mirror to focus the suns rays on the rod end of a Stirling engine), and the cooling fin section around the cylinder would radiate heat away in the cooling section.
I submitted this idea to NASA decades ago, and they still use batteries or radioactive decay as a method to power spacecraft . This technique could easily work for the space station, or other human occupied settlement or craft while within the inner solar system. It only requires a computerized control system to control the orientation of the parabolic mirror so that the heated end stays facing the sun, and the cooled end would be in the shadow of the parabolic mirror focusing its rays on the heated end.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm