"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> > What would the efficiency of simple moon made photovoltaics be, and
> > what about the energy requirements for mass sorters and robots?
>
> Regular Si solar cells are certainly feasible in the 10-20% region
> (the lower efficiencies being poly-silicon which may be easier to
> produce on the Moon). You might be able to push it up to ~24%. But
> you have to use multi-layer cells made from different materials with
> higher and lower energy band gaps to get into the 30+% region.
>
> If you are using nano-mass sorters like the single proton massometer
> from Nanomedicine, I suspect the energy requirements are very low.
> If you are talking macro-tech they are probably quite a bit higher.
> In mass-spec sorting you have ionize the atoms to put a charge on
> them so you can accelerate them through a field that will sort them
> by mass.
Mass spectrometry would be tremendous overkill; wet chemistry is the way
to go for pre-nano lunar manufacturing. Some of it might be really ugle
wet chemistry with lots of fluorine compounds, but the processes are
well known.
-- Doug Jones, Rocket Engineer XCOR Aerospace
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