• Question: How solar energy can be harnessed in outer space?

    Asked by 389speq37 to Stephen, Sita, Rory, Brian, Alison on 1 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sita Karki

      Sita Karki answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      It is already being harnessed, the satellite sensors use the energy from sun by the use of photo-voltaic cells which converts solar energy to electricity.

    • Photo: Rory Scarrott

      Rory Scarrott answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      Well, they already do that. The have little solar panels attached to satellites and space stations, which turn solar energy into electricity to keep the machinery and thingys working.

    • Photo: Brian OConnor

      Brian OConnor answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      Solar energy can be used to make space craft move in a process called solar electric propulsion – the outer parts of the spacecraft get really hot and cause little tiny bits inside the aircraft wings called atoms to move. Eventually the atoms start moving so fast they create a magnetic field and they are pushed out the back of the spacecraft by the magnet, making it move forward, kind of like a car accelerating but without an engine – all thanks to solar energy!

    • Photo: Alison Dufresne

      Alison Dufresne answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      I think the others have answered this question well but I’d add that you should up a Dysons Sphere! It’s a concept of how we could harness aaaaaalll of a stars solar energy. Maybe a little Sci Fi but so was the idea of solar panels before we first built them.

    • Photo: Stephen O'Connor

      Stephen O'Connor answered on 4 Mar 2019: last edited 4 Mar 2019 2:13 pm

      Good question! I believe the other engineers have covered the main points. The physics of solar energy conversion to electricity is well understood, the technology to do it already exists, and is currently used on spacecraft. Improvement of the technique is ongoing.

      In the future, scientists would like to design and build a giant structure in outer space to capture enormous amounts of solar energy and transfer it back to Earth.

      There are many obstacles to overcome first though to make that work. The size of such a structure could be on the order of kilometres long. If we are to build it, we will need to get more energy back than we put in. It will take the resources and efforts of many nations to carry out such a huge engineering feat. There also technical challenges that are under current research such as converting the collected electricity efficiently into radio waves which are transmitted to Earth and then re-converted back to electricity for us to use.

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