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Post by altiarsaint on Nov 12, 2016 10:30:32 GMT
I am a little curious how well solar panels could operate or if they would be useful in this setting. I figure they don't put out much power but would be good for powering small things like a micro drone. I am trying to build a drone but it just ends up being that I have to put relatively massive radiators on it. If there were solar panels I may not need the massive radiators. I suppose this might seem like a selfish request...It is actually. I just want solar panels so I can finish this drone lol.
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Post by leerooooooy on Nov 12, 2016 10:38:21 GMT
You need to make it so that things requiring solar panels have a high outlet temperature. Double the outlet temperature, and you will need 1/16th of solar panels. In other words, use a mini nuclear reactor instead of RTGs, here is a small design Attachment DeletedEdit: I somehow mixed up radiators and solar panels lol |
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Post by cuddlefish on Nov 12, 2016 13:04:19 GMT
The big problem with solar panels is that the modest amount of power you can get from them drops off even further the further out from the Sun you get. That's actually one of the big problems RTGs were designed to avoid, because otherwise Jovian probes, much less things going further, would be unfeasible.
When one then notes that almost all the scenarios in the game take place in the Belt or further? They just wouldn't be worth the hassle.
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Post by goduranus on Nov 12, 2016 13:16:36 GMT
If it weren't for fissiles being tightly controlled and that they are rare in earth's crust, nuclear power is probably better than solar power.
Anyways, in game your drone can be powered by a tiny 100kw reactor, the radiator needed can be quite small as well.
Your mistake was using RTGs, which run at a low temperature and require large radiators.
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Post by tophattingson on Nov 12, 2016 13:40:37 GMT
Conventional solar panels have pretty bad power to weight ratios, and this gets even worse once you move away from Sol. However, I think that some defence-focused craft located at Mars or closer could make use of ITO/InP on Kapton foil with a power to weight of 2,000W/kg at Earth, with the added bonus of not needing large radiator arrays. That is better than all default modules (although I have designed nuclear reactors that give you ~100,000W/kg). |
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Post by altiarsaint on Nov 12, 2016 17:59:38 GMT
Thanks for all the replies guys. I suppose they would be really inefficient. I dont know too much about solar panels but it makes sense why it would be better to use Reactors instead of something that limits you in so many ways.
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Post by jonen on Nov 12, 2016 18:17:23 GMT
Probably not quite on the scale of proven technology - and likely awkward to implement - but wireless power transmission (via microwave and/or laser) may be a possibility.
And what's solar power put an implementation of that?
Solar power station in orbit, beaming a stream of power to a receiver on a ship. Probably not very useful for a combat spacecraft (since combat maneuvering may force it to move out of the beam before it can be adjusted to track). But laser powered missiles/drones launched from a warship (so as to give them the benefit of the launching vessels larger powerplant) might be useful.
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