Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Money to me is freedom, and freedom is essential. Money allows me to say that I will now devote my life to being me, rather than putting on my shoes and tie, and going to an office every day."
- Robert Silverberg
 |
| Sunpower Screen | ||
| A solar cell array used to provide power for a vehicle. |
The Sunpower screen was the motive power for a special kind of explorational vehicle. Today, we would call this kind of "screen" a photovoltaic cell array, or solar panel. A variety of solar panels are available commercially.
| The vehicle he had chosen was not an unreasonable substitute for burros. It was extremely rugged, easy to operate, and almost foolproof. It drew its power from six square yards of sunpower screens on its low curved roof. These drove a constant- load motor, or, when halted, replenished the storage battery against cloudy weather, or night travel. The bearings were 'everlasting', and every moving part, other than the caterpillar treads and the controls, were sealed up, secure from inexpert tinkering. |
| From Coventry,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Not Known in 1940 Additional resources -
|
At present-day rates of efficiency, six square yards of Amorphous silicon-based solar cells would produce about (100 milliwatts per square inch) x (6 x 36 x 36 square inches) = 780 watts of power.
For comparison, the Ford e-Ka uses a battery pack which consists of 180 individual cells, and is capable of storing 28 kilowatt hours (kW/h) of energy, and weighs a mere 280 kilograms. This vehicle goes zero to sixty in about 12 seconds and is capable of eighty miles an hour. If you are interested in the science, take a look at this solar energy experiment.
Be sure to read about the vehicle described above: Steel Tortoise - grandfather of the ATV from the same novel; that entry has a slightly extended quote.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Coventry
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to Coventry
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
| Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit |
| SunnyFive 'Window' Has Full Spectrum Angled Natural Light |
| Liftware Level, Google's Smart Spoon |
| Prufrock The Newest Boring Machine |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling...'
'... filling their great tanks with the finely divided dust which the ionic rockets would spit out in electrified jets.'
'In the napcap a client became an instant yoga master...'
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...'
'Jeremiah is a sports-model to begin with and that kind is awfully hot-tempered.'
'If anything can glue the asteroids back into the planet they once were, magnology will do it.'
A cooling unit had to be strapped to every commuter's back, by law.
'...lined with durite, that strange close-packed laboratory product.'
'He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him...'
