Spanish researcher Tekniker to develop wind turbine prototype for Mars exploration

Spanish research organisation Tekniker said it will lead a project to develop a wind turbine capable of delivering a stable and reliable power supply for exploration missions on Mars.

Funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), the HORACE project will build a demonstrator for a triboelectric generator (TENG), a technology that uses a triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction to convert mechanical energy into electricity. According to the Basque Country-based researcher, TENG can be easily integrated into a low weight wind turbine and deployed on Mars to be used for power generation. The Martian environment is characterised by extreme weather, abundant winds and storms that can last for six months, conditions in which solar panels are insufficient.

The TENG technology is also an alternative to conventional electromagnetic generators, which are unsuitable for planetary exploration due to their weight leading to high launch costs, Tekniker explains.

Tekniker plans to start the project in January 2021 and finalise it in June 2022. Operations of the TENG prototype will be verified and validated under different atmospheric conditions inside the Martian chamber at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

The research organisation submitted the idea for the HORACE project to ESA’s Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP). More details can be found on ESA's website here: https://ideas.esa.int/servlet/hype/IMT?userAction=Browse&templateName=&documentId=27d0039a93915be283a2d3ea383b915b

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