Difference between revisions of "Spaceflight with gem-gum-tec"

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(added lots of ideas regarding cooling by heating)
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* better materials
 
* better materials
 
* further miniaturization
 
* further miniaturization
 +
 +
== Cooling a spacecraft by heating its radiators ==
 +
 +
A Spacecraft can only get rid of it's waste heat via radiative cooling.
 +
This is because there's practically no material surrounding it that could provide a path for conduction or convection that the waste heat could take.
 +
 +
For the purpose of radiative cooling bigger higher powered sattelites/spacecrafts need infrared radiators.
 +
 +
When the temperature of the radiators is kept constant then doubling the cooling power equates to doubling the area of the radiatiors. This furthermore roughly doubles the radiators mass (ignoring the mass of eventual fractal stiffening structures).
 +
 +
Since the radiated away power per unit area '''(areal cooling power density) scales with the fourth power of the radiators temperature''' (Stefan–Boltzmann law) one can radiate away much more waste heat when the radiators are operated at a high temperature.
 +
 +
While possible today {{todo|check inhowfar that has been done}}<br>
 +
actively pumping heat from the spacecraft into the radiators will be possible much more efficiently with [[diamondoid heat pump system]]s.
 +
 +
Of course the maximum temperature is limited by the thermal material degradation
 +
of the radiators. Some good [[refractory material]]s (those that don't contain rare elements) will become dirt cheap with advanced [[gem-gum technology]].
 +
 +
Going to the ultimate limits requires rare elements though.
 +
 +
=== Going to the limits of spacecraft cooling ===
 +
 +
{{speculativity warning}} (level 1)
 +
 +
Instead of using refractory materials containing rare elements and still being
 +
not much more performant than with cheap refractory materials one could try the following:
 +
It might be possible to use a heat pump to dump the waste heat into a magnetically confined plasma that one slowly releases. A plasma at temperatures way above the melting point of all possible solid state materials and possibly even way above the temperature of the sun (just as in today's tokamak nuclear fusion experiments).
 +
 +
Possible problems are:
 +
* plasma narrow band RF heating bottleneck (serious issue ...)
 +
* plasma detachment from magnetic cage
 +
 +
This looks very much like the VASIMR (variable specific impulse magnetoplasmatic rocket) concept. So could it double as propulsion?
 +
 +
For cooling it's important to release a wide thermal energy spectrum carrying as much phase space away with it as possible. Narrowing the release angle should reduce phase space so double use for propulsion should degrade cooling capacity a bit.
 +
 +
The other way around, avoiding an undesired propulsion effect, may be an issue too.
 +
 +
=== Grazing the sun – A "mundane" form of star lifting ===
 +
 +
{{speculativity warning}} (level 2)
 +
 +
With this method: Could spacecrafts be sent near enough to the sun to replenish their released "cooling-plasma" (up to 200,000,000 K) with plasma from the suns atmosphere which is freezing cold in comparison (corona: 1,000,000 K)?
 +
 +
Problems:
 +
* hard to shield against deeply penetrating hard radiation (X-ray to gamma)
 +
* corona temperatures > 1,000,000 K (low density though!)
 +
 +
=== Cooling whole Planets ===
 +
 +
{{speculativity warning}} (level 2)
 +
 +
'''Venus:'''<br>
 +
With advanced gen-gum technology one could quickly start cooling down Venus by just reflecting back excessive in-falling light. The natural cooling process would take a very very long time though.
 +
 +
If one wants to speed up the cooling process significantly the cooling by heating method may be usable.
 +
 +
Also in a possible far off future where a one actually want's to use most of that energy and one taps a significant amount of it the cooling by heating method may be usable to prevent overheating of the whole planet.
 +
 +
A planetary cooling system would likely look like plants shining thermal light beams at temperatures between 2000K and 3000K away from the sun during nighttime / on the nightside of the planet.
 +
 +
If focusing does not degrade the cooling capacity too much (as explained further above) then part of the energy that's radiated away can be reused further out the solar system. This further degrades cooling efficiency though (due to receiver back-reflection).
 +
 +
'''Earth:'''<br>
 +
In general this is about averting the "hypsithermal limit" and thus even applicable to earth.
 +
 +
== Enabling magma submarines ?! ==
 +
 +
{{speculativity warning}} (level 3)
 +
 +
In case earth core probes turn out to be possible than the method of cooling by heating radiators is of absolute essence. An unconditional requirement.<br>
 +
See main article "[[Deep drilling]]" for more speculations regarding this topic.
  
 
== Related ==
 
== Related ==

Revision as of 15:31, 9 August 2017

This article is a stub. It needs to be expanded.

Mass reduction through:

  • better materials
  • further miniaturization

Cooling a spacecraft by heating its radiators

A Spacecraft can only get rid of it's waste heat via radiative cooling. This is because there's practically no material surrounding it that could provide a path for conduction or convection that the waste heat could take.

For the purpose of radiative cooling bigger higher powered sattelites/spacecrafts need infrared radiators.

When the temperature of the radiators is kept constant then doubling the cooling power equates to doubling the area of the radiatiors. This furthermore roughly doubles the radiators mass (ignoring the mass of eventual fractal stiffening structures).

Since the radiated away power per unit area (areal cooling power density) scales with the fourth power of the radiators temperature (Stefan–Boltzmann law) one can radiate away much more waste heat when the radiators are operated at a high temperature.

While possible today (TODO: check inhowfar that has been done)
actively pumping heat from the spacecraft into the radiators will be possible much more efficiently with diamondoid heat pump systems.

Of course the maximum temperature is limited by the thermal material degradation of the radiators. Some good refractory materials (those that don't contain rare elements) will become dirt cheap with advanced gem-gum technology.

Going to the ultimate limits requires rare elements though.

Going to the limits of spacecraft cooling

Warning! you are moving into more speculative areas. (level 1)

Instead of using refractory materials containing rare elements and still being not much more performant than with cheap refractory materials one could try the following: It might be possible to use a heat pump to dump the waste heat into a magnetically confined plasma that one slowly releases. A plasma at temperatures way above the melting point of all possible solid state materials and possibly even way above the temperature of the sun (just as in today's tokamak nuclear fusion experiments).

Possible problems are:

  • plasma narrow band RF heating bottleneck (serious issue ...)
  • plasma detachment from magnetic cage

This looks very much like the VASIMR (variable specific impulse magnetoplasmatic rocket) concept. So could it double as propulsion?

For cooling it's important to release a wide thermal energy spectrum carrying as much phase space away with it as possible. Narrowing the release angle should reduce phase space so double use for propulsion should degrade cooling capacity a bit.

The other way around, avoiding an undesired propulsion effect, may be an issue too.

Grazing the sun – A "mundane" form of star lifting

Warning! you are moving into more speculative areas. (level 2)

With this method: Could spacecrafts be sent near enough to the sun to replenish their released "cooling-plasma" (up to 200,000,000 K) with plasma from the suns atmosphere which is freezing cold in comparison (corona: 1,000,000 K)?

Problems:

  • hard to shield against deeply penetrating hard radiation (X-ray to gamma)
  • corona temperatures > 1,000,000 K (low density though!)

Cooling whole Planets

Warning! you are moving into more speculative areas. (level 2)

Venus:
With advanced gen-gum technology one could quickly start cooling down Venus by just reflecting back excessive in-falling light. The natural cooling process would take a very very long time though.

If one wants to speed up the cooling process significantly the cooling by heating method may be usable.

Also in a possible far off future where a one actually want's to use most of that energy and one taps a significant amount of it the cooling by heating method may be usable to prevent overheating of the whole planet.

A planetary cooling system would likely look like plants shining thermal light beams at temperatures between 2000K and 3000K away from the sun during nighttime / on the nightside of the planet.

If focusing does not degrade the cooling capacity too much (as explained further above) then part of the energy that's radiated away can be reused further out the solar system. This further degrades cooling efficiency though (due to receiver back-reflection).

Earth:
In general this is about averting the "hypsithermal limit" and thus even applicable to earth.

Enabling magma submarines ?!

Warning! you are moving into more speculative areas. (level 3)

In case earth core probes turn out to be possible than the method of cooling by heating radiators is of absolute essence. An unconditional requirement.
See main article "Deep drilling" for more speculations regarding this topic.

Related

External links

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