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NASA lunar battery prototypes survive extreme cold in tests
NASA's prototype lunar batteries survived deep cold in lab tests, and worked at minus 112°F.
Images: NASA/Ryan Hill · Music: "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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The gist
- The cells use solid material in place of liquid electrolyte.
- They worked with slightly reduced performance at minus 112°F, and survived minus 274°F without damage.
- They could power drills, rovers and astronauts' emergency packs near the Moon's South Pole.
What happened
NASA tested solid-state battery prototypes in thermal vacuum chambers at Langley Research Center, which combine temperature extremes with conditions resembling space. The cells worked with slightly reduced performance at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 80 degrees Celsius) and survived exposure to minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit without damage.
Why it matters
Batteries that need warming only before use could reduce temperature-control equipment while powering lunar tools and astronauts' emergency packs.
How we know
NASA's single-source battery development report describes thermal vacuum tests at Langley Research Center that measured prototype operation and assessed survival after temperature extremes.
What we don’t know yet
Surviving minus 274°F is not a claim that the batteries worked at that temperature; small heaters would warm the cells after extreme cold. Next, NASA's Ames Research Center is developing flight hardware, such as test boards and electronics, for the batteries.
Sources & credits
Sources
Image, footage and music credits
- Images: NASA/Ryan Hill (Public domain, U.S. Government work (NASA media usage guidelines: NASA content is generally not subject to copyright in the United States))
- Narration: Grok voice Lumen
- Music: "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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