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Power Generating Spacesuits
Maggie McKee writes "Piezoelectric sensors could help power future space missions. Astronauts' spacesuits may one day be covered in motion-sensitive proteins that could generate power from the astronauts' movement, according to futuristic research being conducted by a new lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. Such 'power skins' could also be used to coat future human bases on Mars, where they could produce energy from the Martian wind. Eventually, the biologically derived suits might even be able to heal themselves."
What? The suits are powered by the astronauts' movement, and that energy is provided by food? It's more conserving energy than anything. If we could somehow train our astronauts not to play golf on missions, we could save billions on R&D.
Anyway, I just love the capitalisation of "Could" in mid-sentence.
...I'm sure all they want is more of their own personal energy dumped into flexing their suits...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Except that you don't really want them getting extra exercise while they're in their suits -- one of the big problems with space construction is that working in space suits is very tiring. The rest of the time it's not enough to exercise to prevent muscle atrophy... you also have to load your bones to prevent bone loss.
The guy patented the molecule. The one we all have in our ears. And he patented it. Did I mention he's got the actual patent on it?
Sorry, got carried away a little. So, this guy, who actually patented the naturally occurring protein which generates electricity in response to vibration, and so presumably knows what he's talking about, has no earthly clue how this power could be utilized. What is the article about then, exactly? Is it to draw attention to an interesting peculiarity of some organic compound? That's nice. But why is it covered in bad CG depicting people and machinery in vaguely otherplanetary landscapes?
I can assure you, the best way to get rid of dragons is to have one of your own.
>The apocryphal story of NASA spending millions of dollars to invent a
>pressurized ball point pen that would work in zero gravity and USSR
>deciding to use a pencil comes to my mind.
Every try sharpening a pencil in space? The bits of graphite and wood shavings floating around are quite annoying.
A human working flat out is only good for a few hundred watts.
My thoughts exactly. The amount of power possible is just minute - enough to run a few LED lights and maybe a micro-radio. (and then only as long as you don't broadcast)
Whoopie!
It's like the guy who wanted to generate power from the falling water in his rain gutters....
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Another clue that the article should not be taken seriously is the following quote: "Peter Dallos of Northwestern University in Illinois, US, which patented the prestin molecule in 2003, says prestin may be 10,000 times more efficient at generating power than the best manmade material." That makes no sense. Efficiencies for converting mechanical power to electricity can be quite high (e.g., greater than 80%). Even if one were talking about efficiencies on the order of only 20% (such as we see with photovoltaic cells), 10,000 times that would be 2000%. Even proponents of perpetual motion machines would probably regard as ludicrous the claim that you could get 20 times as much electrical energy out as mechanical energy put in. My guess is that the folks at IntAct Labs are trying to create a buzz with this nonsense because a stock offering for the outfit is in the offing. I would not touch it.