Thursday, August 11, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Technology and Engineering

NASA awards UToledo grant to enhance solar power conversion for Mars, Moon missions

June 8, 2021
in Technology and Engineering
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The three-year, $240,000 grant will be used to investigate how to make solar power conversion more resilient and tolerant to space-related radiation

IMAGE

Credit: Daniel Miller, The University of Toledo

A team of engineers in The University of Toledo College of Engineering is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to more reliably power spacecraft using the sun’s energy on future missions to Mars and the moon.

The electricity generated by solar panels aboard a spacecraft is used to provide power for a number of systems, including propulsion and navigation.

Before the solar-derived electricity is integrated with those systems, it must first pass through an intermediary circuit, or a “power converter,” that conditions the electricity coming from the solar panel so that it is compatible with the propulsion and navigation systems.

However, cosmic rays that float in space and contain ions are disrupting the performance of this power converter, causing radiation-related failures.

NASA awarded Dr. Daniel Georgiev and Dr. Raghav Khanna, both associate professors in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a three-year, $240,000 grant to investigate how to make the power conversion circuitry more resilient and tolerant to space-related radiation, which degrades its performance and results in power loss and system downtime.

“We are honored and excited that our research will contribute to NASA’s goal of putting more exploratory devices and electrical power on Mars,” said Khanna, who has done prior work with NASA on power electronics and semiconductor studies. “Ever since I was a kid, it has been a dream to work with NASA and maybe someday walk on the moon like Neil Armstrong.”

Using a solar array simulator in their laboratory, high-speed precision computers and guidance from NASA, Georgiev and Khanna are modeling why the circuits are failing.

The simulator emulates the characteristics of solar arrays used in space and provides power to a power converter circuit built by the UToledo team and NASA engineers.

“We’re analyzing how the radiation penetrates the circuit and what causes these devices to degrade,” Georgiev said.

At the same time, the team will study the degradation mechanisms in a particular application relevant to NASA by developing a power converter that allows the solar panels aboard NASA spacecraft to continuously extract maximum power from available sunlight.

“As the spacecraft is moving around and goes behind a celestial body, maximum available power tends to change rapidly,” Khanna said. “On the moon, lunar dust can also obscure the panel from the sun, leading to rapid changes in available power. Whether in deep space or in lunar missions, we need to develop a control algorithm to make sure we can always extract maximum available power from solar panels at a much greater efficiency while exhibiting improved radiation tolerance, allowing uninterrupted exploration.”

###

Media Contact
Christine Billau
[email protected]

Tags: Electrical Engineering/ElectronicsSatellite Missions/ShuttlesTechnology/Engineering/Computer Science
Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Quaise_Energy_Gyrotron.png

    Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

    105 shares
    Share 42 Tweet 26
  • Order up: new study reveals importance of liquid structural ordering in crystallization

    79 shares
    Share 32 Tweet 20
  • Study finds second primary lung cancer is 4 percent and as high as 8 percent among surgery patients

    78 shares
    Share 31 Tweet 20
  • United Kingdom-based smoking cessation program reports that 30 percent of support in a lung cancer screening program: the Yorkshire Enhanced Stop Smoking Study (YESS)

    77 shares
    Share 31 Tweet 19
  • NELSON trial protocol more sensitive than NLST and may increase the benefits of lung cancer screening, while reducing unnecessary follow-up procedures

    77 shares
    Share 31 Tweet 19
  • Sub-lobar surgery for peripheral non-small cell lung cancer non-inferior to lobectomy

    76 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

A role for cell ‘antennae’ in managing dopamine signals in the brain

The walk of Japanese children develops differently from children in other countries

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 193 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In