Recent comments in /f/space

DanYHKim t1_je0x3w2 wrote

Reply to Water is trapped in glass beads on the moon's surface, lunar samples show by SaraShane

>The theory proposed by this latest research is that these glass beads, formed in ancient times, can be imbued with water when they’re hit with solar winds, which carry hydrogen and oxygen from the sun’s atmosphere across the solar system. In fact, it could be how more than 270 trillion kilograms (600 trillion pounds) of water is stored across the moon.

So they are collecting hydrogen and oxygen from the solar wind, which recombines into water in situ? Does this mean that energy is released as the hydrogen is oxidized?

Also, is this like silica gel desiccant? I mean, people shouldn't eat it, right?

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larsschellhas OP t1_je0to7w wrote

Reply to comment by electric_ionland in Is Space-Based Solar Power An Option to Solve Humanity's Energy Hunger After All? by larsschellhas

>I've tried to summarise what I was able to learn about it in this article :)

I literally wrote that I wrote the article myself.... 🙈

Yes, I get that. I'm an energy/mechanical engineer, and working as management consultant for the energy industry. It's a hard case. But the problem of renewables right now really is their intermittency... Solar PV has a load factor of 11-16 % over the course of the year, but in winter weeks you can easily get load factors of 1 %.

Space-based solar power can achieve close to 100 % load factor and delivers equally in summer and winter. From the value side, it provides much more than wind and solar do right now. But the cost side, of course, is also much more intensive. However, it appears to become economically feasible with launch costs decreasing further and further. If not as baseload than at least as peak capacity.

ESA is currently running two studies (results expected in the next months) which are expected to show that the cost of such a system could actually be further reduced if we were to use materials from the Moon.

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dirtballmagnet t1_je0rp8r wrote

Reply to comment by Shadowtirs in More Water Found on Moon, Locked in Tiny Glass Beads by LanceOhio

This is how I would tell it to myself:

After the impact, the vaporized surface material would begin to cool and condense, pretty much like raindrops form in clouds. And there would be a cloud of volatiles and other stuff that wasn't yet condensing.

We can imagine that just before the rock cooled off enough to start changing phase, the water was freely intermixed with it. Then as it crystallized it would push out the liquids and gases, but sometimes the lattice would form like a tent around that pocket of gas, and trap it. Some of the trapped stuff would be water.

It seems a no-brainer to set up a giant magnifying class and start sintering lunar regolith. Focus sunlight, melt the rock, open the lattice holes, cook off and capture the volatiles and water, now you have a little water, tons of oxygen, and a stupid amount of titanium-rich slag that you might be able to use as feedstock for a 3d printing system.

Now you don't have to monkey around with the poles and their finite-over-human timescale-water supply. Just sinter layer after layer of rock that you've already excavated for your construction.

... Is my relatively uninformed opinion.

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