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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."
Seeing you can't get energy for free, and you can't even break even, wouldn't this just add to the resistance one would need to overcome to move?
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
Astronauts' spacesuits may one day be covered in motion-sensitive proteins that could generate power from the astronauts' movement ... Such 'power skins' could also be used to coat future human bases on Mars, where they could produce energy from the Martian wind.
But what about producting power from the Astronauts' wind?
Wizard Needs Food, Badly
Astronauts covered in proteins! that sounds like it could be a new pay website!
The original generic sig.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
"...Could ...may ... could .... could ... could .... might...."
/. could get laid this year, and womankind may decide that brilliance could be a more important attribute than charisma. We could end up seeing a world that could be different than it is. This might happen anytime now.
Every geek on
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.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Allowing them to continue their pursuit of John Connor despite multiple shotgun hits.
Wouldn't it make more sense to send up a female mudwrestler greased rather than covered in protein? Seems like more power would be generated and selling the videos could generate much needed cash.
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.
Sure this would give them a much needed work-out, but that is far better to do inside where there is better oxygen supply, waste heat/water processing etc.. Rather use an exercise bike driving a generator which is likely to be far more efficient.
Basically this sounds far more like a solution looking for a problem that anything really useful.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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.
The one that's a blatantly not true? I'm against space exploration for many reasons, but even I know this story is utter bullshit.
1)Fisher developed the space pen without a dime from NASA, and sold them to NASA at a reasonable price.
2)Both the US and USSR used pencils.
3)Both stopped using them because the dust/filings/broken tips floating around were bad for people and equipment.
Incidentally, I have a Fisher pen; it's the smallest one they make (I think), a two-piece unit where the cap flips around to make it a full-length pen. It's a great pocket pen; the ink seems to be quick-drying (left-handed people will appreciate this and know what I mean), not too pricey ($10 I think? Maybe $15?) small, always works, and with the cap off, it's a full-size writing implement and very sturdy when "assembled." Not like one of those cheesy telescoping jobbies that bend and are too thin to hold. An o-ring-like seal keeps the cap on firmly when stored and keeps the laundry detergent out (yes, proven more than once.)
It's quick to whip out (cough) and always works, unlike half the pens at cashiers which a)can't be found and b)barely work. It also garners the occasional impressed comment. My only beef is that the clip came off after a month or so in my pocket- would have been nice if they had spot-welded it on instead of just press-fitting it.
Please help metamoderate.
There is a lot of complaining that this will make the suits harder to bend and a number of other non-sense.
The point is that a lot of energy is already wasted by normal movement. It goes into things like crushing your shirt sleeves, friction, sound etc.
You have to make the space suits out of something... it may as well be something that can recapture energy normally wasted in motion.
Some have brought up the notion that these types of devices use more energy to make than they can capture. If it costs more energy to make the suits than they can generate... well that is irrelevant. The energy would be expended on Earth, so the mission gains some energy efficiency for "free." This becomes a consideration only if the suit has to be manufactured during the mission... perhaps as a replacement.
Don't get me wrong... this is far from the primary way to get energy. Take the example from the article of using this to generate energy from the Martian wind. Instead we might use this "wind mill" technology. However, if you have wind buffeting a static structure, it makes some sense to capture some of that energy if (and that's a huge IF) you can do so just by changing the materials used on the exterior. It may make more sense to coat the windmills with this stuff, and build the shelters underground.
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
wouldn't using the little piezoelectric crystals used in microphones and certain watches to produce electricity from motion be a lot simpler then trying to figure out a way to get proteins from our ears to do the same job a lot less efficiently ? Sounds like a waste of research funds to me!
Type define:apocryphal and hit search. Unless you were suggesting it isn't strong enough word to illustrate your stance. In which case, "utter bullshit" definitely fits the bill.
No sig for you!!
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.
Biological coating for structures on Mars?
Someone call Sheridan before they kill us all!
(Maybe too obscure...)