Bangor University Nuclear Futures Institute’s laboratory has designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain life there. The Bangor team, which is a world-leader on fuels, works with partners such as Rolls Royce, the UK Space Agency, Nasa and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US.
On parts of the Moon, temperatures plummet to astonishing lows of -414F (-248C) - because it has no atmosphere to warm up the surface. Bangor University is a major player in the quest to generate another way of producing energy and heat to sustain life on the planet.
The researchers have just sent the tiny nuclear fuel cell, known as a Trisofuel, to their partners for testing. This Trisofuel cell could be used to power a micro nuclear generator, the size of a small car, created by Rolls Royce. That will now be fully tested and put through forces similar to being blasted up into space, ready for a Moon base in 2030. (1)
The university hopes the micro generators could also be used here on Earth, such as in disaster zones when electricity has been cut off.
There at last …
(1) I’ve had an interest in a “Moonbase” since the '70’s and “Space 1999”:
what the heck would anyone wanna live on the moon for - apart from saying “heh dad look - I’ve done it” what contributions would they be able to make for man/womankind that would enhance our already glorious lifestyles - an escape planet perhaps for when the world catches fire or blows itself to pieces hmm?? possible ?/ - will need an awful let of feckin houses up there with their own mini domed gardens to keep them and their planets and miniature pigs and chickens alive Oh and one cow per family for milk??
there not welsh scientists at bangor uni are they??
I think the point of living on the moon is to use it as a base for further space exploration. We save massive amounts of fuel by taking off from the moon as it has far less gravity. The most fuel used taking off from earth is used just getting out of the atmosphere.
Surely though Ralph, you would still use the massive amounts of fuel to transport everything you would need to build the base and assemble a craft? Including the workers.
And they complain now about wasting energy to keep warm here, and the temperature in Bangor rarely drops below a few degrees below freezing for a couple of months during the winter. Minus 248 degrees C will need one monster boiler…
Yes we’d still need to transport parts and humans but the main reason is oxygen, it’s a big part of rocket fuel.
The heavy part of the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel mix is the oxygen, which is about 7/8ths of the fuel mass . Instead of launching all the fuel for maneuvering from Earth, we could launch eight times the hydrogen from Earth and mix it with the lunar oxygen, which also is useful for breathing, making water and assorted chemical processes.
Apparently there’s ice there and that will help them send space ships to Mars.So humanity will be able to “boldly go” and exploit the rest of the galaxy.
We had best not fool ourselves Ralph, the human race is going nowhere…
I suspect all this new found interest in living on the moon has more of a strategic purpose than a scientific one. It’s only taken a few million years for us to project a dustbin full of electronic bits and pieces and crash land it on Mars. Forget about sending anything alive up there, especially a human.
When whoever or whatever it was that dumped humans on this water and tree covered rock whizzing around the sun, they knew exactly what they were doing…We were surrounded by such an inhospitable atmosphere that stretched for billions of light years that there is no way in or out…
I can understand why we do it. Humans, especially blokes (women aren’t really built for it) have a passion for discovering the undiscovered…And we’ve discovered most of the stuff here so lets branch out…I know! The Moon!
It was Antarctica a while back and look how we have utilized our knowledge of those icey wastelands…We can frighten people to death while making lots of money with tales of rising sea levels and diminishing Ice flows…And it’s somewhere that nobody goes, so can’t prove otherwise.
Yup… I’ve done just that and had a quick listen, mellow, very mellow.
Nice one Spitty, I’ll give it a proper listen on Sunday at leisure over a glass of something
