Device turns excess heat to energy - Could harvest electrical energy from spacecrafts such as the ISS

04/28/2014 - 00:00

Mike Williams


Rice University engineering students think it’s a shame to waste energy, especially in space. So a team of seniors invented a device that turns excess heat into electricity.

Heat created by electronics onboard the International Space Station (ISS) now gets tossed overboard into the void. But new technology to turn heat into power would make it possible to put it back to work to run the myriad systems onboard.

he senior engineers who call themselves “Team Space Ring” are using thermoelectric generators that transfer heat from cooling pipes like those used to radiate it into space.

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