New Mars Forums

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

Read me

*Was going to put this in the  Medical Science Potpourri thread in the Science & Technology folder, but decided to place it here instead. 

Applications for Mars use (and other manned missions)?  Seems quite promising.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

I guess a temporary waste water useage but if you get into an environment where it is cold not only would it freeze but the power output would also decrease with the colder that the battery gets to freezing.

Then how do you dispose of a spent battery, as bio hazard or is it something else?

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

IMO, this is kind of a non-invention.

Instead of using water, they use urine, so good for throwaway urine samplingsets that needs some electrical use, but nothing groundbreaking at all. 18th C technology, in essence.

I could see it *maybe* having uses in disaster areas, war theatres etc. where electrical infrastructure is non-existant or dstroyed... A quick, but potentiallly high-tech test for ... stuff, but not much use in the developed world, or in space, for that matter.

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

Just had a memory flashback; of a wrist watch that worked by adding drops of water.

Commodore

Member

From: Upstate NY, USA

Registered: 2004-07-25

Posts: 1,021

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

If you have to use up all your pee to power electronics, what are you going to drink?

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"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane

Mace

Banned

From: California, USA

Registered: 2005-07-17

Posts: 38

Re: Biowaste-Powered Batteries

six billion people on Earth...countless animals...i wonder how much energy could be made from that...?
a few people on mars....probably no animals....lots of energy needed for life support....I don't think this will replace solar cells any time soon