Solar Energy ArticlesSolar Panel Applications in Outer Space Manned and unmanned missions of space vehicles are launched frequently for exploring what is beyond earth. These vehicles need a lot of energy in order to overcome the gravitational pull from the earth and get into the different layers of atmosphere. The large quantity of fuel that is used in the spacecrafts get depleted in an attempt to make the space vehicle go away from earth and also to shoot the spacecraft into the orbit around the earth. When the space vehicles are present in orbit, there is little fuel on board which cannot be depended upon for use during the entire tenure of spacecraft. Hence solar panels find applications in such situations in space vehicles. There is also the concept of solar power being collected in the outer space and then use it for different purposes on earth. This is called Space based Solar power (SBSP) In such cases, the spacecraft hovering around the earth in an orbit collects all the energy efficiently. This is because there are no atmospheric concerns like weather, clouds and the solar panels are well above the earth’s surface, free from all the layers of atmosphere. The spacecraft is then able to collect solar power that is incident on the solar panels mounted on it. In this case, collection of solar power into electricity takes place in spacecraft photovoltaic mechanism. There should also be a provision to transmit the electricity produced by harnessing solar power on spacecraft and then send it to the earth for its intended use. Quite often, the mechanism that involves transmission of power on earth is in the form of a transmitter-receiver pair. The power is transmitted by spacecraft. This is intended to be a directional transmission since there should be a minimal waste of power. Hence transmitted antenna is directional and the receiver is also parabolic the antenna placed at the focus. The International Space Station (ISS) is a classic example of solar panel application in outer space. This station is expected to be there in the orbit of the earth till 2020. Obviously there needs to be some fool proof source of power to run the operations of the ISS. And no better answer comes up to anyone's mind other than solar panels. Solar panels are installed on ISS to convert solar power into electricity. Voltage regulators ensure that the ISS is never out of power or get any voltage spikes to get its devices running. The ISS is a collaboration of various countries who conduct experiments on this space vehicle. It is based upon the microgravity model. Another example of solar panels being used as critical devices of power supply in outer space would be the Skylab project. The Skylab project is a spacecraft launched and also operated by the NASA in USA. It includes a workshop, solar observatory, as well as other systems for monitoring activities of the earth. This requires lot of power. This power is derived from none other than the solar panels. It is also seen that the earth based solar systems cannot operate in full capacity. Hence a space station to collect the infinite power from the sun comes handy. The cost of launching however, even though very high, it is worth an investment because this means we can farm the capacity of the outer space in order to provide us with the most needed electricity on planet earth. This makes solar panels very important devices in space excavation. Getting the throughput of the solar power from the sun and sending it to earth after converting into electricity is called as solar farming. Related articles
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