Sound To Power Space Probes

An anonymous reader writes "The old adage that 'no one can hear you scream in space' seems to have its own variant when Los Alamos scientists announced today their latest designs for the 'traveling wave engine', a derivative of the classic, pistonless Stirling device. Because it uses helium as an oscillating gas in a long tube, the design works kind of like a high-pitched loudspeaker at maximum efficiency. Another description combines a refrigerator and whistle to make an engine."

So what's left...

[Stoopid-Guy0]

Now we just have to find a stash of thousands of old Barry Manilow CDs to use as the sound! No one will miss them anyway when they all float up and away into space...

One think I've always wanted to know...

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

If sound doesn't travel in a vacuum, why are vacuum cleaners so loud?

Not a *Power* Source

[CheshireCatCO]

I find the headline a bit misleading; this isn't a power source, it's a way to convert the source's output (heat) into electrical power. You will still need a power supply. (Probably an RTG.) You'll just get more electrical power by using this system.

Not news (much), either - been around for a while

[Engineer-Poet]

The only newsy thing about this is the interest from makers of space probes; the thermoacoustic engine has been around for a while (combine with a thermoacoustic chiller and you've got a gas-liquefaction system with no moving parts [lanl.gov]; here's another one from 1999 [findarticles.com]) and the page from LANL on thermoacoustic systems [lanl.gov] is almost two years old already. These guys [mindspring.com] were plugging their sound-to-electricity converter some time ago.

Old adage?

[grunthos]

The old adage that 'no one can hear you scream in space'

You mean "In space, no one can hear you scream"? That's not an old adage, that was the advertising line for the movie "Alien"!

Mumble, grumble... Dang whippersnappers with their video-game attention spans can't even remember movie posters...

Or...

[Red Rocket]

... as it appears pressed on the inner rims of The Clash's Sandinista! LPs:

IN SPACE...
...NO ONE...
...CAN...
...HEAR...
...YOU...
...CLASH !

My Name is a Killing Sound

[voice of unreason]

Be careful! Los Alamos knows the weirding way!

Everything inventable...

[bar-agent]

This just goes to show that everything that can be invented has been invented already. There have been a bunch of stories along these lines.

This is simply the re-invention of the Stirling external combustion engine.

In Discover, there was an article about water distillation through hydrates. Again, not new.

The recent locomotion research is based on insects. They've been around for billions of years.

Re:Everything inventable...

[WhiplashII]

What's new is that it is now better than an internal combustion engine. That means that very soon manufacturers will stop using ICEs, and start using these modified Stirling engines. The only uncertainty after reading all this is power provided per kilogram of engine. That didn't seem to be a problem, however they did not provide data for that. Cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to operate, environmentally sound - WOW!

I beg to differ

[Engineer-Poet]

Thin-film solid-oxide fuel cells. Ballistic-electron photovoltaic converters. The former is a big refinement of the best that had come before, and the latter is brand new AFAIK (not that I'm a guru on the subject but I follow the field a lot more closely than the vast majority of /.'ers).

You can assume that something old is new and special, or that something new is old hat. Both are mistakes, with consequences.

"Sound fridge"

[Uplore]

"Another description combines a refrigerator and whistle to make an engine."

Thats interesting, did you also know that is it possible to cool things down by pushing sound waves through low desity matter? In fact they have made a fridge that uses helium gas and a 190 decibel loudspeaker to cool the food. Of course the fridge is completely soundproof so you dont deafen yourself. See it here! [proteinos.com]

Help Wanted

[TeaQuaffer]

All of a sudden, NASA's new astronaut "help wanted" add makes sense...

...In addition to achievements in low energy physics, the ability to fly a jet, and a strong stomach, applicants are expected to have some renowned as operatic singers in case of power failures...