Soon, humans will return to the Moon and settle there permanently. The production of constant energy to supply future lunar habitats is one of the key points of the conquest of space. On this point, the company Blue Origin stands out by succeeding in manufacturing solar cells from equivalent substitutes of lunar regolith without carbon emissions, without water or toxic ingredients. The technology, dubbed Blue Alchemist, might even benefit Earthlings.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company dedicated to the conquest of space, has just unveiled a unique process in the world for producing solar panels using lunar regolith, all without CO emissions.2 and without using toxic products.
For this, Blue Origin used simulants of regolith, this dust found on the surface of the Moon. Indeed, in the absence of resources from the Moon today, Blue Origin had to reproduce dust extracts in the laboratory, keeping their composition and properties. It was then possible to obtain all the components of a solar cell, by simple electrolysis.
This technology, baptized Blue Alchemist, consists in obtaining, following electrolysis at more than 1,600 degrees of iron, aluminum and silicon simulants, as many elements necessary for the manufacture of solar cells.
On-site solar panels
Not only is it possible to obtain silicon here, but it is more than 99.999% pure. It is precisely this purity that will make it possible to create truly efficient solar cells. Until now, to make this silicon as pure as possible, large quantities of toxic chemicals were generally used. Ultimately, these solar cells are therefore manufactured without carbon emissions, without water and without polluting ingredients.
In the future, the idea would therefore be to exploit lunar regolith in order to produce cells and solar panels with optimized efficiency, both on Earth and on the Moon, to supply energy to future stations on site. In the lunar context, it would however be necessary to provide a special cover glass so that they function correctly, without wearing out very quickly.
This discovery is timely, while NASA is in full reconquest of the Moon, with its manned program Artemis which should send a crew to the Moon in 2025, for the first time in more than 50 years. Note that Blue Origin still wants to be able to participate with its new lander project.