I recently read an article that proposed that ballooning spiders propel themselves through the air by means of electrically charging silk extruded from their abdomen. The author of the paper postulated that even a small amount of electrical charge would allow the spider to take advantage of the natural voltage gradient that occurs in the Earth's atmosphere, aiding in the spider's ability to travel tremendous distances.* Reading this reminded me of an article I read about 6 years ago, within that article it was noted that as a result of solar wind, radiation, and the tail of the Earth's magnetic field, referred to as a plasma sheet, the surface of the Moon appears to create a natural voltage gradient.
I am curious, could the charged surface of the Moon be used in some way to power/propel micro space craft? (Unfortunately this is one of my posts where I posit more questions than actual answers, although I find this idea too interesting to not at least spend an hour looking into) While the voltage gradient of the Lunar surface may achieve relatively high voltages, the density of these charges may be insufficient to allow for non-microscopic space craft (although a microscopic space probe would be cool).
Imagine a swarm of small lunar explorers, the size and shape of small spiders spending their days wandering over the surface the Moon and other non-terrestrial surfaces. Every month for six days when the moon is full in the Earth's night sky the little explorers will unwind statically charged tethers and ride the plasma eddies forever searching for critical materials to humanities exploration.
One potential application of such micro explorers could be to emphasize the discovery of deposits of regolith that contain high concentrations of critical elements like hydrogen and carbon. By emphasizing narrowly defined sensors the robots within the swarm would hopefully be low enough cost that they could be dusted across the surface. When a swarm encountered a deposit that it found to meet mission parameters, ex hydrogen ratios exceeding 22.5 parts per thousand (over 100x higher than background) the spiders would deactivate their tethers and wait to be noticed by overhead satellites (this is based on the assumption that a satellite's resolution might not be high enough to detect smaller deposits of resources, but could see the marker swarm in indicator mode).
Added 9/25/2013
Another potential means of utilizing this feature would be to create an extremely thin "magic carpet", the extremely massive surface area to mass would allow for as much charge as possible to support the structure. An engineering concern for this approach would steam from the potential of the system to become tangled as a result of localized eddies in the motion of charge. Either the structure could be made semi-rigid or small motors could be placed within the frame allowing for it to dynamically shape itself.
Regardless I hope that something like this happens as it would be wicked cool.
I feel I should say this somewhere, the rational behind a macroscopic swarm design generally stems from the additional mobility available during times where the voltage gradient is insufficient for propulsion. It could make just as much sense, if not more so, to suggest developing microscopic swarm machines that used chemical switches to go from a roaming platform to detection marker.
*under ideal circumstances
Electrical Activity and Dust Lifting on Earth Mars and Beyond
An article that discusses various means by which dust can gain charge, including on bodies like the Moon and asteroids, it generally indicates that objects larger than 10 micrometers are unlikely to be lifted by the electrostatic force. That being said the statements are for naturally occurring materials, not systems designed to drift along the gradient. (hey trying to be hopeful here)
I am curious, could the charged surface of the Moon be used in some way to power/propel micro space craft? (Unfortunately this is one of my posts where I posit more questions than actual answers, although I find this idea too interesting to not at least spend an hour looking into) While the voltage gradient of the Lunar surface may achieve relatively high voltages, the density of these charges may be insufficient to allow for non-microscopic space craft (although a microscopic space probe would be cool).
Imagine a swarm of small lunar explorers, the size and shape of small spiders spending their days wandering over the surface the Moon and other non-terrestrial surfaces. Every month for six days when the moon is full in the Earth's night sky the little explorers will unwind statically charged tethers and ride the plasma eddies forever searching for critical materials to humanities exploration.
One potential application of such micro explorers could be to emphasize the discovery of deposits of regolith that contain high concentrations of critical elements like hydrogen and carbon. By emphasizing narrowly defined sensors the robots within the swarm would hopefully be low enough cost that they could be dusted across the surface. When a swarm encountered a deposit that it found to meet mission parameters, ex hydrogen ratios exceeding 22.5 parts per thousand (over 100x higher than background) the spiders would deactivate their tethers and wait to be noticed by overhead satellites (this is based on the assumption that a satellite's resolution might not be high enough to detect smaller deposits of resources, but could see the marker swarm in indicator mode).
Added 9/25/2013
Another potential means of utilizing this feature would be to create an extremely thin "magic carpet", the extremely massive surface area to mass would allow for as much charge as possible to support the structure. An engineering concern for this approach would steam from the potential of the system to become tangled as a result of localized eddies in the motion of charge. Either the structure could be made semi-rigid or small motors could be placed within the frame allowing for it to dynamically shape itself.
Regardless I hope that something like this happens as it would be wicked cool.
I feel I should say this somewhere, the rational behind a macroscopic swarm design generally stems from the additional mobility available during times where the voltage gradient is insufficient for propulsion. It could make just as much sense, if not more so, to suggest developing microscopic swarm machines that used chemical switches to go from a roaming platform to detection marker.
*under ideal circumstances
Electrical Activity and Dust Lifting on Earth Mars and Beyond
An article that discusses various means by which dust can gain charge, including on bodies like the Moon and asteroids, it generally indicates that objects larger than 10 micrometers are unlikely to be lifted by the electrostatic force. That being said the statements are for naturally occurring materials, not systems designed to drift along the gradient. (hey trying to be hopeful here)
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