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6.4 Power Beaming-Assisted CO2 Reduction 43 minimum duration between dust storms of 374 sols to allow the system to thermally recharge. The required volume of stored electrolyte is 2960 m3, requiring a tank of radius 8.9 m with 996 m2 of surface area. To achieve 50% thermal loss or 0.13%/sol therefore requires R-170 insulation (30 K-m2/K), or 6× the performance of our above case (6× insulation thickness). 6.4 Power Beaming-Assisted CO2 Reduction As with the aqueous and non-aqueous PEC systems and EC systems described above for converting sunlight and atmospheric CO2 to fuel and oxygen, most previous missions to Mars (with the exception of radioisotope-powered spacecraft) take advantage of incident solar energy. Presently, all of these prior missions harvest energy by way of photovoltaic arrays to power their onboard technologies. Although using ground-based solar arrays has been quite successful, there are several challenges and concerns for scaling this technology to meet the demands for much larger-scale energy conversion. One issue is the requirement to store the energy in some form for the Martian nights when no solar radiation is available. Another significant concern that has no obvious solution is mitigating the challenges from the large-area, extended-duration dust storms that occur on the planet. These storms decrease the amount of solar radiation reaching the Martian surface and the dust also covers the solar panels, making them less effective even when solar flux is high. One interesting option that addresses many of these issues is the approach of wireless power transfer. This concept has been considered for some time for Martian and lunar missions, but has yet to be implemented. Wireless power transfer is a familiar concept, with experiments dating back to Nikola Tesla at the turn of the century. Collection of solar energy via large space-based solar arrays followed by conversion to either laser or microwave energy that is then beamed down to the planet’s surface has likewise been considered before, conceptualized by Peter Glaser in the late 1960s. Shortly thereafter, experiments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) demonstrated over 80% conversion of beamed microwave to DC power, for a total of 30 kW DC output power transferred over a distance of 1.54 km. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently demonstrated transfer of 1.8 kW to a rectenna array 55 m away, and their partner Mitsubishi has shown 10 kW over 500 m distance. JAXA has reported that they intend to implement this methodology on Earth by the 2040s. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have made progress in examining the possibility of using lasers for power beaming on Earth, as lasers decrease the size requirements of the receiver relative to a microwave system. Use on Earth, however, is notably more complicated than on Mars. Possible interactions with the atmosphere, with wildlife, and with infrastructure, such as air travel, need to be considered carefully, simulated, and experimentally verified prior to use. On the surface of Mars, these concerns are considerably lessened. An important consideration is that the significant dust storms on the planet make the use of laser light a poor choice. LossesPDF Image | ISRU Challenge Production of O2 and Fuel from CO2
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