Surviving Lunar Night with Solid State Battery Systems

Conventional lithium ion batteries using liquid electrolytes would freeze under ultralow temperatures. A solid-state battery system with sustainable sodium-based solid electrolyte that never freezes is proposed to survive and operate through ultracold lunar night to significantly improve the reliability of energy storage systems for lunar surface and extreme space environment operations.

Safe, resilient, and low-cost SSB system for extreme space environment. Building on success from Year 1 in high conductivity Na solid electrolytes, start further investigating Na SSB full cell architectures tailored toward low temperature operation. Fabricate Na SSB cells and test material performance in wide temperature settings. Test extreme temperature survivability (-170°C - +120°C) and operation (-40°C - +100°C) of Na SSB cells under thermal vacuum conditions.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.