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<\/p>\nIf you\u2019ve ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning, you know standard batteries do not like extreme cold. That\u2019s why NASA researchers are working to develop a battery that could function in the brutal cold of the Moon\u2019s South Pole, where nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 Celsius).\u00a0<\/p>\n
For future lunar operations, a battery will need to work immediately when warmed up and be able to power everything from an astronaut\u2019s emergency kit to a rover capable of exploring the Moon\u2019s darkest craters \u2014 all without posing a fire hazard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A team of NASA researchers is working to make all that happen. The project is called Solid Power for Extreme Environment Adaptability and Resilience in Space (SPEARS), and it could provide NASA with an important tool to help power humanity\u2019s sustained presence on the Moon through the Artemis campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBatteries have become an important part of our lives here on Earth, which enable our laptops, cell phones, power tools, and even our vehicles,\u201d said Donald Dornbusch, principal investigator for SPEARS at NASA\u2019s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where the project is led. \u201cWe will need them on the Moon, too, and these batteries will be required to operate reliably and safely in this harsh environment. That\u2019s why we\u2019re working on this technology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Traditional lithium-ion batteries like those in your cell phone and laptop have a critical weakness: they rely on liquid electrolytes. Cool a conventional battery to the Moon\u2019s nighttime temperatures, and that liquid would freeze, potentially damaging the battery. Heat it up too much \u2014 say, to daytime lunar temperatures of 212 F (100 C) \u2014 and it won\u2019t work until cooled. Expose the liquid to the vacuum of space, and it evaporates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SPEARS batteries solve these problems by replacing the liquid electrolyte with a solid ceramic- or polymer-based material. This change could unlock several advantages. First and foremost, they could operate in the heat and extreme cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During recent thermal vacuum testing at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, small prototype battery cells operated well up to 176 F (80 C), down to minus 76 F (minus 60 C), and with slightly reduced performance down to minus 112 F (minus 80 C).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proved for the first time that these cells can work down to minus 80 degrees Celsius,\u201d said Yi Lin, SPEARS testing and research lead at NASA Langley.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lin also said he\u2019s confident they can improve performance and maybe even expand that range in coming years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The batteries need to remain reliable through exposure to the Moon\u2019s wild temperature swings between day and night. The thermal vacuum testing showed that after exposure to temperature extremes from 212 F (100 C) to minus 274 F (minus 170 C), SPEARS batteries don\u2019t sustain damage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yi Lin<\/p>\n
SPEARS testing and research lead<\/p>\n
Not even solid-state batteries will function while they\u2019re at a temperature as low as minus 274 F, but because solid electrolytes don\u2019t freeze like a liquid, the batteries can survive the extreme low temperatures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In order to get the batteries working again after exposure to such cold, small heaters come into play. SPEARS batteries wouldn\u2019t need to be kept warm all the time, just warmed up to operational temperature. That could reduce the need for heavy thermal management systems in spacecraft and lunar habitats, allowing for lighter designs, lower costs, and longer mission durations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The applications for these solid-state batteries are nearly limitless, from small tools like drills that must operate in shadowed lunar craters, to rovers and emergency power packs for astronauts. They also could provide power solutions for long-duration scientific instruments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can tune the chemistry by using different electrode materials,\u201d said Lin. \u201cJust like the chemistry in your earbuds is different from the chemistry in your phone, which is different from the chemistry in your car, all these chemistries can still function with a solid electrolyte. We can tune for energy, tune for power, tune for durability, depending on the application.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While SPEARS is designed for space, the technology could be spun off into Earth-based applications. In fact, SPEARS evolved out of a previous battery project Lin and Dornbusch worked on that focused on aeronautic applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe potential market for solid-state batteries is very broad,\u201d said Ji Su, a polymer materials scientist and the task lead at NASA Langley. \u201cAutomobiles, cell phones, communication devices, drones \u2014 anything that needs a portable power supply.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The SPEARS project began in 2026 with funding through the Advanced Research and Technology division within the agency\u2019s Research and Technology Mission Directorate. The project is set to focus on technology development in its first stages before potentially shifting toward commercial collaboration. NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley is working to develop flight hardware such as test boards and electronics to help prepare the SPEARS batteries for spaceflight and test them in space environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[211786,20571,20572,111,139,69,264083,147,392,10836,145,174643,108009],"class_list":["post-630535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-game-changing-development-program","tag-glenn-research-center","tag-langley-research-center","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-research-and-technology-mission-directorate","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-technology-mission-directorate","tag-technology","tag-technology-for-living-in-space","tag-technology-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}