Transmat World: Steampunk Meets Star Wars: A Harrowing Micro-Tale of Future Spacefarers

The year is 2107 and mankind has begun to mine the asteroids. A small habitat houses 10,000 people that live and work in space, have families, and raise kids.

Solar cells and fabricated panels are still made on Earth and are highly prized in space. The only supplier of solar panels (who paid Earth-based governments for the monopoly) to the coterie of companies in space keeps raising prices, and the orbiting crowd is tired of it. They boycott the solar panels. There are, however, pressing energy requirements for ongoing projects in orbit. Are they screwed? Is there an alternative?

Assuming there is no nuclear fusion technology (at that point in the future, it is only 30 years away) there is still an alternative. Steam power. Don’t laugh. Disclaimer: This is not a steampunk story. Okay, maybe a little since it’s in the title.

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Steam may be the most cost-efficient way to power a space habitat. Outer space is perfect for producing steam. Producing photovoltaic or solar cells is pretty sophisticated fabrication requiring specialized equipment and a particular type of silicon. Not saying it can’t be done in outer space but think how much easier it would be to use steam.

Steampunk Modernism

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

It would, basically, be a metal coil in sunlight producing steam that’s sent to the turbine, comes out of the turbine and goes to a condensing coil shaded from the Sun. The steam turns back into water, and the process starts again. The turbine would be located all snug in the habitat spinning its generator while the coils are out in space. A steam power utility station could also be built as a stand alone unit to be towed to wherever electric power is needed in space.

This is, essentially, how the ISS maintains its inner temperature. A water coil in the ISS soaks up heat, then goes outside to a shaded coil that radiates the heat into space. When the space station is in sunlight, things on the outside can heat up to 250 degrees F, while in Earth’s shadow it can get down to -250 degrees F. These extreme temperatures can affect the inhabitants, despite very good insulation. This is why some system for temperature stability is needed.

A large steam turbine is about 50% efficient while a photovoltaic cell is currently about 20% efficient, although that’s a bit moot considering how much solar energy is available in space. But what about the turbine itself? If solar cells can’t be made, why would a steam turbine be any different? By this time, 3D printing in space will be a given. Masonry type items made from powdered asteroid, plastics made from methane ice, and asteroid metal ranging from mild steel to high-temperature stuff like inconel will be just some of the things that can be printed out. Many parts of the habitat itself will have been 3D printed. The design for the turbine could be uploaded from a number of companies on Earth willing to make money on blueprints they have had laying around for over a hundred years.

Also, by this time there should be plenty of water mined from asteroids to use for such a project. Unless there is a catastrophic leak or break in the system, the water can be used over and over forever. To get the steam temperature up to useful working pressures, a few hundred pounds per square inch, mirrors would be required to multiply the radiation striking the coils. Also, some insulation and heat tracing may be necessary for the condensing coil to keep from freezing up. Here is a schematic of how such a system might work.

Click image to enlarge. Drawing by Glen Hendrix.

So there it is. Once again the forces of good and human ingenuity have conquered evil, greedy bastards out to make a fortune off of someone else’s tight situation. If it were only always that easy.

Postscript:

Apparently I'm not the only one thinking about this.

Researchers develop a steam-powered spacecraft that can hop between asteroids