Steampower on the moon?

[MeteorWayne]

Your missing the beauty of it why06.<br /><br />They don't have to be far apart at all, just one above the surface, and one below the surface. A few dozen feet should suffice, I suspect. The thermal inertia of the subsurface on one side, and the insolation and radiation of energy into space on the other will provide the temperature difference required.<br /><br />Google "Stirling Engine" so you'll understand how it works, and why its such a cool (hot) idea <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[spacester]

Hi Arkady,<br /><br />Sorry for the focus on solar PV, I was going to use the copy-n-paste to talk about your idea, but found the error and stopped after the correction.<br /><br />This still isn't what you're talking about, but it is instructive:<br /><br /> Power Lander, 228 kb pdf<br /><br />I hope to get back to this thread, certainly your dome would produce a lot of power, but we would need to tie down more parameters to get a meaningful number. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacester]

The trouble with this idea is the low thermal conductivity under the lunar surface: once you put that heat load on it, it isn't so cold anymore, and it is going to take a longish time to return to the low temperature.<br /><br />The same problem put the kaibosh on what seemed like a really good idea in its day, here on Earth: ground-sourced heat pumps. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

AFAIK, ground sourced heat pumps are doing just fine, but I haven't checked lately. Any sources on those problems? I'll do some digging.<br /><br />Don't forget on the moon, in non polar environments, you'd be sucking heat for 14 days, them pumping in heat for the next 14.<br /><br />However in polar environments as previously discussed, that could become an issue. I've been mixing the two (polar, and non polar) in my head...they definately have different resources and issues. This could be a good thing <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[arkady]

<font color="yellow">but how would you store the energy of the steam engine... </font><br /><br />Well if you operate it in a perpetually lit area, you don't have to store anything. Besides, sometimes you just want to dig a hole. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br /> Anyways, I didn't mean to get into the practicality of such a device at this point in time, but merely wondered if it could work. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "<font color="#0000ff"><em>The choice is the Universe, or nothing</em> ... </font>" - H.G Wells </div>