美国东北大学官宣 | 郑义教授获美国空军100万美元资助，用于开发航天器备用能源

【Northeastern Global News】The energy source developed by Northeastern professor Yi Zheng will use waste heat generated by space equipment and sunlight that does not reach the Earth.

【美国东北大学国际新闻】东北大学教授郑义开发的能源将利用空间设备产生的余热和无法到达地球的阳光。

A device that will absorb wasted heat from space equipment and reflected sunlight and convert it into an energy source for spacecrafts and Mars rovers is being developed for the U.S. Air Force by a Northeastern University researcher.

东北大学的科研人员正在为美国空军研发一种设备，该设备将吸收来自空间设备的浪费热量和反射的阳光，并将其转化为航天器和火星车的能源。

“Even if it can supply only 10% to 15% of backup energy to the electronics, we can extend the lifetime of both electronics and a spacecraft,” says Yi Zheng, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and the director of Nano Energy Laboratory at Northeastern.

“即使它只能为电子设备提供10%到15%的备用能源，也可以延长电子设备和航天器的寿命，”郑义说，他是东北大学机械和工业工程学副教授兼纳米能源实验室主任。

Zheng will work on the thermal device in collaboration with Faraday Technology Inc., an Ohio-based company that specializes in developing applied electrochemical engineering technology for the U.S. government and commercial clients.

郑教授将与位于俄亥俄州的法拉第技术公司合作开发热设备，该公司专门为美国政府和商业客户开发应用电化学工程技术。

“Our goal is to design a high-performance thermal absorber and thermal emitter that can absorb, convert and emit the energy at the desired wavelength,” Zheng says.

“我们的目标是设计一种高性能的热吸收器和热发射器，能够在所需波长吸收、转换和发射能量，”郑教授说。

This technology will be suitable for short- and long-term space travel, he says, including use on the moon, Mars or even satellites launched out of our galaxy.

他表示，这项技术适用于短期和长期的太空旅行，包括在月球、火星甚至我们银河系以外的卫星上使用。

In the past few years, Zheng has been developing materials to harvest and store energy, waste energy and nanoengineered materials.

过去几年中，郑教授一直致力于能源采集和储存、废能再利用以及纳米工程材料的研究。

The primary source of energy in space, he says, is usually the sun — high-performance solar panels convert sunlight into energy to power space equipment.

他说，太空的主要能源通常是太阳——高性能太阳能电池板将阳光转化为能量，为空间设备提供动力。

Zheng’s energy source will use the waste heat generated by space equipment that otherwise is dissipated further into space, as well as sunlight that does not reach the Earth and is reflected by the atmosphere.

郑教授的能源将利用空间设备产生的余热，这些余热本会进一步消散到太空中，同时还将利用无法到达地球并被大气层反射的阳光。

Spacecrafts and space equipment, Zheng says, have to operate in extreme conditions — really low temperatures (usually minus 454 Fahrenheit; or minus 270 Celsius) and nearly total vacuum. In addition, driving space vehicles requires energy resources.

他说，航天器和太空设备必须在极端条件下运行——温度非常低（通常为零下454华氏度或零下270摄氏度）且几乎完全真空。此外，驾驶航天器需要能源资源。

“We cannot simply launch another tank of oxygen [for example] to the traveling equipment,” Zheng says.

“我们不能简单地向旅行设备发射另一箱氧气，”郑教授说。

Electronics operating on board a spacecraft or high-temperature surfaces, Zheng says, will produce thermal radiation, or infrared light, which is invisible to the eye but can be detected as a sensation of warmth on the skin. This heat will be dissipated in space and be lost.

他表示，在航天器或高温表面运行的电子设备会产生热辐射或红外线，这些热辐射肉眼看不见，但能在皮肤上感觉到温暖。这些热量将在太空中消散并丢失。

Waste heat exists almost everywhere, Zheng says, including Earth. For example, a hot engine or a furnace heated to a high temperature dissipates some of that temperature as well.

郑义教授说，废热几乎无处不在，包括地球。例如，热发动机或加热到高温的炉子也会散发部分热量。

Recovery of that energy has been studied for the past few decades, Zheng says, and his team will apply recently developed technologies in designing their thermal system.

他说，过去几十年来，废热能量的回收一直在研究中，他的团队将应用最近开发的技术设计他们的热系统。

First, they will test various human-engineered materials and surfaces — called metamaterials and metasurfaces, respectively — for the proposed thermal absorber. Metamaterials possess some properties that are not observed in natural materials. They do not exist naturally on Earth, Zheng says, and, therefore, have to be synthesized or nanomanufacturerd in the lab.

首先，他们将为设计的热吸收器测试各种人造材料和表面——分别称为超材料和超表面。超材料具有天然材料中未观察到的一些特性。郑教授说，它们不是天然存在于地球上的，因此必须在实验室合成或通过纳米技术获得。

The problem with common materials, he says, is that they do not have high-absorbance or emittance properties at the desired wavelengths of infrared energy. Zheng says the wavelength of infrared light is about 1.5 to 2.5 micrometers, which is about 12-24 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

他说，地球上常见材料的问题在于，它们在所需的近红外波长下没有高吸收或发射率特性。这里的近红外线的波长约为1.5至2.5微米，比人类头发的直径小12-24倍。

“So that requires some theoretical and experimental work from our group,” he says. “Actually, my research interests are focused on active and the dynamic tuning of thermal, radiative and optical properties [of materials].”

“因此，这需要我们课题组的一些理论和实验工作，”他说。“实际上，我的研究兴趣集中在材料的热、辐射和光学特性的主动和动态调节上。”

“Also, we have to balance the weight and the cost as well,” Zheng says. “We have to balance a lot of stuff. So, considering the limited selection of materials for outer space use, that kind of pushed us to think of and adopt nanotechnology to design functional materials as a thermal device.”

“此外，我们也必须平衡重量和成本，”郑教授说。“我们必须平衡很多因素。因此，考虑到外层空间使用的材料选择有限，这促使我们思考并采用纳米技术来设计功能材料作为热设备。”

Even though nanotechnologies or nanomaterials are expensive, he says, they work remarkably well. Without nanotechnology, it is impossible to absorb specific wavelengths under the extreme conditions.

他说，尽管纳米技术或纳米材料很昂贵，但它们效果非常好。在极端条件下，没有纳米技术不可能吸收特定波长。

To fabricate nanomaterials, Zheng says, scientists use refractory, or thermally resistant materials that are stable and have a high melting point of over 2,700 degrees (or 1,500 Celsius) and a long lifetime.

他说，为了制造纳米材料，科学家们使用耐火材料或耐热材料，这些材料稳定，熔点超过2700华氏度（或1500摄氏度），使用寿命长。

One good candidate is tungsten, Zheng says, a rare metal with the highest melting and boiling points of known elements on Earth. He wouldn’t rely on this material alone, but in combination with other materials it could be useful in the extreme conditions of space.

郑教授说，一个很好的候选材料是钨，这是一种稀有金属，具有地球上已知元素的最高熔点和沸点。他不会仅仅依赖这种材料，但与其他材料相结合，它在极端的空间条件下可能会有用。

Zheng is spending this summer as a NASA faculty fellow at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He’s doing research on thermal management for the Artemis campaign that aims to return Americans to the moon in preparation of the first manned mission to Mars.

今年夏天，郑教授受邀在克利夫兰的美国国家航空航天局格伦研究中心担任研究员。他正在为美国Artemis计划进行热管理的研究，该计划旨在让美国人重返月球，并为第一次火星载人任务做准备。

“I really hope what I’m doing for both the Air Force and NASA can contribute, actually, to the future projects for longer outer-space traveling,” Zheng says.

“我真心希望我为空军和美国国家航空航天局所做的工作能够为未来更长时间的外层空间探索项目做出贡献，”郑教授说。

原文链接: https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/07/12/space-energy-heat-converter/