McKravitts
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2022
- Messages
- 534
NASA is already using orbital energy to power space craft to extraordinary distances. A number of probes have already left the solar system and are speeding into deep space.
The energy cost to NASA was a small fraction of what is required to achieve this task.
They accomplished this task by using what they call gravity assist or as referred to in science fiction as "the sling shot effect".
What is not often mentioned is that this energy is not free. Whenever a space craft fly's by a planet/moon the gained energy is actually extracted from the orbital energy of the body the craft fly's by.
Since most celestial bodies have massive orbital energy, the effect is de minimis and virtually imperceptible.
NASA also uses fly by's to slow craft down. They dump excess energy into a celestial body's orbital energy.
The magnitude of moons orbital energy is 36 x 10^27 Joules . The present global energy consumption of earths civilizations is about 600 x 10^18 Joules per year. Therefore the moons orbital energy could supply the earth for about 60 million years at our present usage.
After 60 million years the moon would crash into the earth so it's more reasonable to consider a shorter time line. Like maybe a thousand years. It's most likely that we would not be able to find a method to extract all our energy needs but even a sizable fraction could make a big difference. If we did get 100% here's what we could expect: In that time the moon would move about 6.5 meters per year closer to the earth. That would only amount to .0017 percent of it's present distance per year. Right now the moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of 3.78 cm per year. This added orbital energy is coming from the earths rotational energy which is actually an order of magnitude larger than the moons orbital energy. This is causing the length of a day on earth to increase by about 75,000th of a second per year. The bottom line is that there are two massive sources of energy that are available to us.
Tapping into a miniscule fraction of this energy would power civilization for a long, long time with almost imperceptible changes to dynamics of the earth/moon system. But is it possible with our present technology?
When one considers that the moons gravity causes tides and tidal energy is already being tested/developed see: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/tidal-energy/ perhaps this idea is not so far fetch as to be summarily dismissed.
Astro physicist have already developed the necessary physics and NASA engineers (and of course we can't ignore all the private companies like SpaceX) have developed the methods to extract and use orbital energy. To date this enormous energy source has only been used to create kinetic energy.
If you asked the following question to a group of engineers; "Who knows how to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy", I dare say everyone of them would raise their hand without giving it a second thought.
So, yes we should have the technology.
The energy cost to NASA was a small fraction of what is required to achieve this task.
They accomplished this task by using what they call gravity assist or as referred to in science fiction as "the sling shot effect".
What is not often mentioned is that this energy is not free. Whenever a space craft fly's by a planet/moon the gained energy is actually extracted from the orbital energy of the body the craft fly's by.
Since most celestial bodies have massive orbital energy, the effect is de minimis and virtually imperceptible.
NASA also uses fly by's to slow craft down. They dump excess energy into a celestial body's orbital energy.
The magnitude of moons orbital energy is 36 x 10^27 Joules . The present global energy consumption of earths civilizations is about 600 x 10^18 Joules per year. Therefore the moons orbital energy could supply the earth for about 60 million years at our present usage.
After 60 million years the moon would crash into the earth so it's more reasonable to consider a shorter time line. Like maybe a thousand years. It's most likely that we would not be able to find a method to extract all our energy needs but even a sizable fraction could make a big difference. If we did get 100% here's what we could expect: In that time the moon would move about 6.5 meters per year closer to the earth. That would only amount to .0017 percent of it's present distance per year. Right now the moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of 3.78 cm per year. This added orbital energy is coming from the earths rotational energy which is actually an order of magnitude larger than the moons orbital energy. This is causing the length of a day on earth to increase by about 75,000th of a second per year. The bottom line is that there are two massive sources of energy that are available to us.
Tapping into a miniscule fraction of this energy would power civilization for a long, long time with almost imperceptible changes to dynamics of the earth/moon system. But is it possible with our present technology?
When one considers that the moons gravity causes tides and tidal energy is already being tested/developed see: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/tidal-energy/ perhaps this idea is not so far fetch as to be summarily dismissed.
Astro physicist have already developed the necessary physics and NASA engineers (and of course we can't ignore all the private companies like SpaceX) have developed the methods to extract and use orbital energy. To date this enormous energy source has only been used to create kinetic energy.
If you asked the following question to a group of engineers; "Who knows how to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy", I dare say everyone of them would raise their hand without giving it a second thought.
So, yes we should have the technology.