$1,000,000 dollar prize for a portable 20W generator

[Bruder Cuzzen]

Weights a big problem ,to bad the suit couldn't be the generator covered solar cells with a simple generator integrated within/on .

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Unless you use something like this.

[Griffin NoName]

Yes, I noticed those. Great idea.

I asked my son (made battery for the Beagle Mars Lander - (((got a pic - looked like he knocked it up in our garden shed))))) about all this.

20W for 96 hrs at <4kg is 480Wh/kg.  A good Lithium-ion battery is 150Wh/kg-200Wh/kg, so they're talking about double or triple the performance of today's best power sources.  Re-charging (e.g. solar, wind, bio-kinetic) helps, but won't close the gap due to the weight of the charger alone.

There are companies out there investing significantly more than $1m p.a. in researching this field, so the prize is irrelevant.  The research lab I ran in Culham as a sideline to the space business was costing £750k p.a. and developed f.a.

Since it's a prize, the DoD doesn't have to fund the development, but everyone writes in to them to tell them about their idea in the hope of winning.  DoD finds out about the capabilities worldwide (benchmarking US capability for free in the process) and if there's a good idea or a good supplier out there they'll buy or licence the technology into the US.

[ivor]

I was going to submit my idea.  I have a couple of ferrets running around in a wheel-generator.  One can rest whilst the other runs.  Now I am just to depressed to submit it.

[Griffin NoName]