Mercuryplane—A Spacecraft for Regular Delivery of Astronauts onto the Mercury

The project of “Mercuryplane”—a spacecraft for regular delivery of astronauts to the planet Mercury is considered. In the first stage of the flight, with the help of a carrier rocket, equipped with a chemical rocket engine, astronauts are delivered to the international space station ISS. A design consisting of an interorbital module and a takeoff-landing capsule has been developed to deliver astronauts from Earth’s orbit into Mercury’s orbit. The interorbital module is an electric rocket equipped with 8 superconductor magnetoplasma electric engines MARS type. The electric power supply for the engines is provided by a collapsible solar panel made of gallium arsenide. The design of the takeoff-landing capsule has been developed for landing and take-off from the surface of Mercury. A device has been developed to refuel in Earth’s orbit the electric rocket engines with nitrogen, and chemical rocket engines with oxygen and hydrogen, which are in liquid state The developed spacecraft is able to regularly deliver three astronauts from Earth orbit to the surface of Mercury within 35 days.

Rapid photothermal heating of aqueous batteries for lowtemperature conditions

Aqueous batteries are promising for large-scale applications owing to their affordability,eco-friendliness,and nonflammability.However,their usability in cold regions is limited by electrolyte freezing and slow ion-transfer kinetics at subzero temperatures.This study demonstrates the stable operation of aqueous batteries in subzero conditions by integrating high-efficiency photothermal current collectors with suspension electrodes.The Ketjen black-based photothermal current collectors efficiently convert a broad spectrum of sunlight(98%,200-2500 nm)into thermal energy,enabling rapid heat generation.Simultaneously,the high thermal conductivity of the suspension electrode ensures quick distribution of thermal energy throughout the battery.This configuration allows the cell’s core temperature to rapidly increase from-18℃to 20℃within 22 min under simulated solar irradiation.Additionally,an integrated light concentrator and temperature regulation system has been developed to improve heating rates and ensure the temperature stability of the cell under various climatic conditions.As a result,the cell can maintain a stable temperature of 20℃during consecutive charge/discharge cycles,even with an ambient temperature fluctuating between-5℃and 5℃.This integrated photothermal battery design exhibits great potential for cold weather conditions,paving the way for the deployment of large-scale aqueous battery systems in polar regions.

Analysis of temperature distribution in PV-integrated electrochemical flow cells

Photovoltaic(PV)-integrated flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion and storage underwent a huge development.The advantages of this type of integrated flow cell system include the simultaneous storage of solar energy into chemicals that can be readily utilized for generating electricity.However,most studies overlook the practical challenges arising from the inherent heat exposure and consequent overheating of the reactor under the sun.This work aims to predict the temperature profiles across PV-integrated electrochemical flow cells under light exposure conditions by introducing a computational fluid dynamics–based method.Furthermore,we discuss the effects of the flow channel block architecture on the temperature profile to provide insights and guidelines for the effective remedy of overheating.