Laser-powered rover is designed to explore the Moon’s eternal darkness

Solar power is not just a great energy source on Earth, it can work on the Moon and Mars too. But there are some places that a solar-powered rover just can’t reach, like the Moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shadow. Now, ESA has outlined a new system where a lander shines a laser at a rover to keep it powered from miles away.

more…

> the Moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shadow. Now, ESA has outlined a new system where a lander shines a laser at a rover to keep it powered from miles away.

:-)

How well would that work? Compared to other power sources.

mollwollfumble said:

> the Moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shadow. Now, ESA has outlined a new system where a lander shines a laser at a rover to keep it powered from miles away.

:-)

How well would that work? Compared to other power sources.

How well it would work, dunno, but the advantage is that a battery would be depleted eventually whereas this can be recharged ad infinitum.

The other idea of course would be RTG

dv said:

mollwollfumble said:

> the Moon’s polar regions that are permanently in shadow. Now, ESA has outlined a new system where a lander shines a laser at a rover to keep it powered from miles away.

:-)

How well would that work? Compared to other power sources.

How well it would work, dunno, but the advantage is that a battery would be depleted eventually whereas this can be recharged ad infinitum.

The other idea of course would be RTG

In the early days, a lot of energy is wasted in converting a decoherant light source (low entropy) into a laser (high entropy). I don’t know whether that’s still true. I also don’t know is whether the conversion of laser energy into electrical energy is or can be more efficient than the conversion of decoherant light in to electricity, ie. is there a method better than solar cells for converting laser light into electricity?

If not, then an LED lamp would outperform a laser for powering the rover.