Question

1. a)The mass of Mercury is 3.3 × 10^23??. About 30% of its total mass is silicate material. Assume that we are able to convert 0.1% of the mass of the silicate material on Mercury to crystalline silicon, how many solar panels can we build? Also assume that our solar panels are square-shaped sheets completely made out of crystalline silicon. Use the following numbers for your estimation: density of silicon is 2300??/?^3 ; thickness of the solar panels is 0.5??; area of one solar panel is 100?^2 . b) After manufacturing the solar panels on Mercury, we can then attach these panels to satellites and launch the satellites into orbits. Assume that all the satellites are sent into circular orbits with a radius of 7 × 10^7?? around the Sun (which equals the aphelion distance from Mercury to the Sun), and that all our solar panels are directly facing the Sun, how much solar power can we gather with all the panels that we built in Question 1? Express your answer in ?(?????). Hint: the radiation of the sunlight is distributed uniformly along any spherical surface with the Sun in the center.

Answer 1