Ground-breaking ceremony for the bERLinPro building on 10th September 2015 at 12:30

Future settlements on the moon will need energy, which could be supplied by photovoltaics. However, launching material into space is expensive – transporting one kilogram to the moon costs one million euros. But there are also resources on the moon that can be used. A research team led by Dr. Felix Lang of the University of Potsdam and Dr. Stefan Linke of the Technical University of Berlin have now produced the required glass from ‘moon dust’ (regolith) and coated it with perovskite. This could save up to 99 percent of the weight needed to produce PV modules on the moon. The team tested the radiation tolerance of the solar cells at the proton accelerator of the HZB.

The SEALab team at HZB has achieved a world first by generating an electron beam from a multi-alkali (Na-K-Sb) photocathode and accelerating it to relativistic energies in a superconducting radiofrequency accelerator (SRF photoinjector). This is a real breakthrough and opens up new options for accelerator physics.

Together with the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, the HZB has set up a new beamline for preclinical research. It will enable experiments on biological samples on innovative radiation therapies with protons.