Improvements in Stirling Engines have made them a critical part of the future of space exploration and colonization. The Terran Space Academy reinforces the concepts of Power, Energy, Force and Momentum then brings you up to date on how a Stirling Engine functions and how they are being used in the space industry and throughout the world for power generation and cryocooling. Generating power in space is a critical component of survival. Complete loss of power in space is almost always fatal. The efficiency of you power generation system will determine how much of the available power you can use. Understanding power generation systems will be vital to your selection and success in the space industry. First let’s make sure we are on the same page when we talk about power. We will define power, energy, work, and force. Then we will apply our understanding to a power generation system. The main difference between an internal combustion engine and a Stirling engine is that the internal combustion engine takes in air for oxygen to burn with fuel, then expels the exhaust into the environment. This won’t work well in space. The Stirling engine uses two chambers, one hot and one cold, that have a gas sealed inside it and a regenerator or heat exchanger between them. The engine pumps heat from the hot end to the cold end putting pistons in between to make the heat energy accomplish work. The heat energy is converted to mechanical energy by the piston system and the mechanical energy is converted into electricity by putting coils and permanent magnets in the right place on the engine. If we heat one end of a Stirling engine the gas sealed in the engine will expand and move a piston, compressing the gas at the other end of the piston, this causes that area to radiate heat and then cool down. The compressed colder gas will then be allowed to flow around to the hot end, which has now expanded and cooled, the cold gas absorbs heat and starts to expand, and the cycle starts all over. The principles are the same for power generation. In this device electrical power is applied to move heat against a gradient and cool something down. This engine can also be used as a refrigerator by using electrical energy to pump heat away from something and make it colder than the environment. No matter how much heat you have if you don’t have a cold place to move it to you can’t get energy from the system. When charging our carbon dioxide batteries on Mars we have to have somewhere with less carbon dioxide to put it so we can discharge the batteries. Our gravity battery quits working when our weight hits the ground and our heat engine stops working if both sides of our Stirling engine are the same temperature. Why can’t we just use thermocouples like the RTG we talked abou ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKnu73DJbEQ

An understanding of artificial gravity systems is critical to survival in space. This brief update on artificial gravity systems for interplanetary Starships will answer your questions on this subject. While adults can handle zero g with tolerable medical issues there is no way to safely transport young people without a gravity system. SpaceXVision has created a beautiful design that we analyze in this lesson. TSA-SOV-SB-SAGU-21111 Music Credit Kevin MacLeod "Lost Frontier" Credits SpaceXVision SpaceX Spincalc ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IEFBxU8L_U