RE: Science Nerds: Could Jupiter's Magnetic Field be harvested for energy?
May 4, 2021 at 2:31 am
(This post was last modified: May 4, 2021 at 2:46 am by Anomalocaris.)
I am not sure You are actually getting power out of the earth’s magnetic field. I think what you are doing is using the earth’s magnetic field to convert your orbital kinetic energy into electrical energy. If you can’t afford to have your orbit decay, then You have to make up for the electric energy you get buy lighting up your rocket engines to replenish your orbital kenetic energy.
So you are getting no net energy out of earth’s electric field at all.
Hence the question, what are you thinking of using Jupiter’s magnetic field to power? If you say the electrical load on an orbital spacecraft. Then the answer seems to me to be it would not gain you to do this because you can probably convert the fuel directly into electricity more efficiently than through attaining and orbital energy and then converting it to electric energy.
So you are getting no net energy out of earth’s electric field at all.
Hence the question, what are you thinking of using Jupiter’s magnetic field to power? If you say the electrical load on an orbital spacecraft. Then the answer seems to me to be it would not gain you to do this because you can probably convert the fuel directly into electricity more efficiently than through attaining and orbital energy and then converting it to electric energy.
