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."

Comments

Wouldn't this make it harder to move?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Wouldn't this make it harder to move?

[ceoyoyo]

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.

"wind power", if you know what I mean...

[President_Camacho]

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?

Why piezo-electric?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Given that no machine has 100% efficiency, these generators cant produce more energy than what the astronauts muscles could deliver. So dont confuse these with generating power like in solar cells or nuclear reactors. But there is always need for electrical energy so they might come in handy. But why these piezo-electrics? I have seen WW-II era footage of soldiers ing tiny generators by hand or by legs to power their radio sets.

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.

Energy efficiency, not generation.

[aibrahim]

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.