The waste heat generated by a person is one of the main concerns with designing space suits. If the tech can be scaled to accommodate that, it could change things. Unfortunately it's less useful down here.

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It looks like the reverse solar panel absorbs infrared radiation, which is a slow way to shed heat

[–] Deme@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yeah that too. Could work for the niche applications mentioned, like low power satellites...

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago

Ah, so the matrix was right...

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 4 points 4 days ago

Hmm not useful on land but still potentially valuable elsewhere.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Missed opportunity to call them "lunar panels"

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But they don't have anything to do with the moon. They harvest energy from Earth's black body radiation

[–] Infrapink@thebrainbin.org 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So they should have been called terral panels.

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 2 points 4 days ago

That's a good one!

I was thinking, Earth's radiation is solar energy, emitting back into space after being absorbed. So a normal solar panel gets solar energy coming down, and this thing gets solar energy going back up. So "reverse" or "upside-down" make sense from that perspective. But wind and hydroelectric also harvest solar energy indirectly. Should we call the sideways solar panels? So yeah, I think "terral" avoids a rabbit hole of madness.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Yeah I know, it just sounded catchy to me