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[Request] Hexagonal Solar Cell


Kuansenhama

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Could someone please make me a solar panel that folds/unfolds like this, probably folding up into some kind of casing. I considered how it would be balanced. It would probably be heavier than regular panels, but be a little tougher than them and have focusing crystals that allow it to have a slightly better power curve farther out in the solar system. Size would be bigger than the 3x2 and 1x6 panels but smaller than gigantors.

s41X7d9.gif

Brownie points if someone would also make me a 'B Configuration' where its seven hexagons that fold up accordion style.

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20 hours ago, Jas0n said:

Lack's Stock Extension includes hexagonal solar panels. I haven't played them so I don't know how they're like, but they should be what you're looking for.

Lack's mod includes static hex cells. Not quite what @Kuansenhama was looking for.

@akron that is a pretty cool solar panel design, looks like something that would go on some of the comms / nav sats we were looking at the other day.

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2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

@akron that is a pretty cool solar panel design, looks like something that would go on some of the comms / nav sats we were looking at the other day.

Indeed, sir!

On 4/1/2016 at 8:33 PM, Kuansenhama said:

Could someone please make me a solar panel that folds/unfolds like this, probably folding up into some kind of casing. I considered how it would be balanced. It would probably be heavier than regular panels, but be a little tougher than them and have focusing crystals that allow it to have a slightly better power curve farther out in the solar system. Size would be bigger than the 3x2 and 1x6 panels but smaller than gigantors.

Those are a really cool design! This is going on my to do list for my mod. I hope some can get them sooner than I, but I'm going to makes these. Thanks for sharing

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4 hours ago, Seeker89 said:

I wouldn't mind something like a concentrating solar power dish, it uses mirrors to direct and concentrate sunlight into a central engine that makes power. 

You mean like a laser ablation engine? I remember hearing about this concept of ablating an asteroid with a laser and using it as a rocket engine (and a surprisingly efficient one, at that.) That would require building a laser and mirrors and setting up new modules/code for reducing the mass of the asteroid and changing its shape, and could easily be a whole mod in and of itself. Would be cool, but all I'm really asking for here is one or two deployable solar panels, not a whole mod that would probably take weeks or months to dev.

3 hours ago, akron said:

Indeed, sir!

Those are a really cool design! This is going on my to do list for my mod. I hope some can get them sooner than I, but I'm going to makes these. Thanks for sharing

@arkon I saw your probes parts pack dev thread, your work looks amazing. If you were to create these hex panels for me, I would be honored to see my humble idea ascend into a real KSP mod.

Edited by Kuansenhama
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7 minutes ago, Kuansenhama said:

@akron I saw your probes parts pack dev thread, your work looks amazing. If you were to create these hex panels for me, I would be honored to see my humble idea ascend into a real KSP mod.

My next mod update is going to concentrate on science stuff so it may not make it in. I will try, otherwise it will be on the following update. A lot of mods have solar panels so I have been looking for cool stuff that has not bee made before to include in probes pack and then on my landers pack

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1 hour ago, Kuansenhama said:

You mean like a laser ablation engine? I remember hearing about this concept of ablating an asteroid with a laser and using it as a rocket engine (and a surprisingly efficient one, at that.) That would require building a laser and mirrors and setting up new modules/code for reducing the mass of the asteroid and changing its shape, and could easily be a whole mod in and of itself. Would be cool, but all I'm really asking for here is one or two deployable solar panels, not a whole mod that would probably take weeks or months to dev.

Hmmm, not really. I was thinking this... 

http://energy.gov/eere/energybasics/articles/concentrating-solar-power-dishengine-system-basics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~wang30y/csp/ParabolicDish.html

and a company that makes them... 

http://cewatechnologies.com/

Could be depolyable too... 

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1 hour ago, Seeker89 said:

Oh, you mean like a solar concentration power plant in space. I think from the point of view of space travel something like this might be impractical, and that's probably the reason it hasn't been done. Photovaultaics are dirty and light. Something like this might be cheaper to build on the ground, but in space, where every kilo of mass matters, Photovaultaics are lighter and fewer things can go wrong with them.

If you were to theoretically build a system like this. (Say in a large deployable Dish Shape on a spacecraft.) It would have the following problems:

1. The dish would have to be aligned perfectly with the sun to focus on the heat collector. So you might need two axes of rotation (and possibly multiple dishes) on the spacecraft. Photovaultaics still produce some power even if they are not perfectly head-on.

2. The system would need time to spool up as the heat collector gets hot.

3. Dissipation of waste heat in whatever fluid you use to turn the turbine.

4. Usable energy losses in the transfer of energy from the sun to the fluid to the turbine. Modern photovaultaics (the good ones that we would use on spacecraft) are almost 20% efficient if I'm not mistaken. I don't know how your proposed collector stacks up to this, but I've never heard anyone say this was a good idea...

5. Simply more parts (pumps, cooling, turbine), so more things that can go wrong.

Seems to me like the only upside is (if you had a crew with the resources to repair it.) It might outlast PV if used for years on end. I think PV cells slowly break down and become less efficient over time.  (I might be wrong). But I feel like I took my own thread off topic for something that belongs in the science labs.

But this is KSP and anything's possible. If you really want a generator like this put in a request and maybe somebody who knows how to make parts will be so kind as to heed your request.

Edited by Kuansenhama
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3 minutes ago, Kuansenhama said:

Oh, you mean like a solar concentration power plant in space. I think from the point of view of space travel something like this might be impractical, and that's probably the reason it hasn't been done. Photovaultaics are dirty and light. Something like this might be cheaper to build on the ground, but in space, where every kilo of mass matters, Photovaultaics are lighter and fewer things can go wrong with them.

If you were to theoretically build a system like this. (Say in a large deployable Dish Shape on a spacecraft.) It would have the following problems:

1. The dish would have to be aligned perfectly with the sun to focus on the heat collector. So you might need two axes of rotation (and possibly multiple dishes) on the spacecraft. Photovaultaics still produce some power even if they are not perfectly head-on.

2. The system would need time to spool up as the heat collector gets hot.

3. Dissipation of waste heat in whatever fluid you use to turn the turbine.

4. Usable energy losses in the transfer of energy from the sun to the fluid to the turbine. Modern photovaultaics (the good ones that we would use on spacecraft) are almost 20% efficient if I'm not mistaken. I don't know how your proposed collector stacks up to this, but if nobody at NASA has proposed it.

5. Simply more parts (pumps, cooling, turbine), so more things that can go wrong.

Seems to me like the only upside is (if you had a crew with the resources to repair it.) It might outlast PV if used for years on end. I think PV cells slowly break down and become less efficient over time.  (I might be wrong). But I feel like I took my own thread off topic for something that belongs in the science labs.

Yeah, I just don't get pay enough on my day job to worry about this things. I just thought it would be a cool idea.... an expansion to what you wanted....

 

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19 hours ago, RainDreamer said:

I hope this won't be hijacking thread, just an extra request since we are on making solar cells:

Can we get one of these too?

 

I +1 This. Though it looks like it would be hard to animate. The only downside is it would be stuck facing one way. unless you took one of these things and stuck it out on the end of a robotic arm rather than it being the core stack of the craft.

Edited by Kuansenhama
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7 hours ago, Kuansenhama said:

I +1 This. Though it looks like it would be hard to animate. The only downside is it would be stuck facing one way. unless you took one of these things and stuck it out on the end of a robotic arm rather than it being the core stack of the craft.

You can also put a few on ground bases as solar farms.

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I think KSP-I used a similar mechanism for their beamed microwave uber widget thingy (Very Technical Terms), but it's been forever and a day since i've played around with that... 0.25 or so.

Were not most of their models public domain of some sort?

It also is late at night and I could be hallucinating the entire thing :P

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