Difference between revisions of "Electrical Conductors"

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(→‎Silver: typo)
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steel cored aluminum allows a longer span  
 
steel cored aluminum allows a longer span  
  
Aluminum is abundant on the Moon. the principle disadvantage of Aluminum on the Earth si that is corrodes rapidly in an oxygen atmosphere. On the moon, in a vacuum environment, it would be an excellent material to use as a general purpose electrical conductor, considering that copper is not readily available on the Moon.  
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Aluminum is abundant on the Moon. the principle disadvantage of Aluminum on the Earth is that is corrodes rapidly in an oxygen atmosphere. On the moon, in a vacuum environment, it would be an excellent material to use as a general purpose electrical conductor, considering that copper is not readily available on the Moon.  
  
 
I expect we'll have to put up with aluminum wire on Luna though, which means higher voltages would be better
 
I expect we'll have to put up with aluminum wire on Luna though, which means higher voltages would be better

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Aluminum

aluminum is also used as a conductor here on earth, in fact you use it every day without realizing it. those HT cables have a steel core and an aluminum outer layer it's used because losses are fairly low at 110kV and the weight of the cable and cost of the towers is important

steel cored aluminum allows a longer span

Aluminum is abundant on the Moon. the principle disadvantage of Aluminum on the Earth is that is corrodes rapidly in an oxygen atmosphere. On the moon, in a vacuum environment, it would be an excellent material to use as a general purpose electrical conductor, considering that copper is not readily available on the Moon.

I expect we'll have to put up with aluminum wire on Luna though, which means higher voltages would be better

Copper

as a general conductor copper is widely used on Earth because it's cheap, reasonably flexible, reasonably light and the 2nd best conductor, but it corrodes worse than silver. However, copper is not readily available on the Moon.

Gold

Gold is is the best known conductor of all. It is of course very expensive, but compared to the cost of transport to the Moon from Earth, the cost is not significant. gold plated tubes could be used to great effect for outdoor RF applications. Most spacecraft use copper wires, but gold can be useful for some applications, for example, mating contacts of connectors (sockets and plugs) are often gold plated.

Gold belongs in it's own special category Connectors

for connectors gold reigns supreme for several reasons" 1. It doesn't tarnish (important on Earth, important indoors on Luna)" 2. It's soft so you can make the connectors tight and the dig into each other forming a good connection."

Silver

Outdoors on Luna, in a vacuum, where it can't tarnish, Silver is an excellent electrical conductor.

in the Lunar outdoors, silver would be way better than copper, or aluminum, only Gold has better conductivity. However, unfortunately, Silver is not readily available on the Moon, and in most cases for large scale systems we will have to make do with Aluminum.