NASA's Freeze-Resistant Moon Battery Could Eventually Reach EVs
6 Million Barrels in Two Minutes Draws CFTC Scrutiny Haley Zaremba is an energy journalist and researcher with more than a decade of professional experience covering global energy systems, land and natural resources, and… The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a revolutionary new battery that could power the country’s return to the moon while potentially also revolutionizing the way that we power electric vehicles here on Earth.
The new technology can function at extremely cold temperatures, opening new possibilities for powering lunar rovers and tools, and could eventually make batteries for terrestrial applications safer, more versatile, and more efficient.
“The technology could eventually power lunar rovers, scientific instruments, and emergency equipment used by astronauts under NASA’s Artemis program,” states a recentreportfrom Interesting Engineering.
“However, the batteries remain small laboratory prototypes and have not yet been demonstrated in space,” the article goes on to note.
During thermal vacuum testing conducted as part of NASA’sSolid Power for Extreme Environment Adaptability and Resilience in Space (SPEARS) project, the new ‘freeze-proof’ solid-state battery has successfully endured temperatures as low as 274 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 170 degrees Celsius).
In addition to surviving these superlow temperatures without damage, the prototype batteries proved operational (although at a reduced performance level) in temperatures as low as 112 degrees Fahrenheit below zero minus 80 degrees Celsius), with more optimal levels of performance in the extremely impressive range of negative 76 to positive 176 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 to 80 degrees Celsius).
These findings are a big win for the SPEARS project, which is charged with developing batteries that can survive the extremely harsh lunar environment without a constant source of heat to keep them from freezing and thereby becoming damaged.
On the South Pole of the moon, where the United States aims to go, temperatures can drop as low as 328 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 200 degrees Celsius).
Traditional lithium-ion battery models are no match for such harsh conditions.
Typically, lithium-ion batteries pass lithium ions from electrode to electrode through liquid electrolytes.
Solid-state batteries are therefore a far more promising technology for extreme cold, as they don’t carry the same risk of freezing in the cold and performing poorly in the heat.
Plus, the liquid electrolytes used in typical lithium-ion batteries are highly flammable and are becoming anincreasingly serious fire hazardaround the world.
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