Made by Camille Vanneste
This was made from an old bicycle. It incorporates a little windmill that turns and makes a small breeze – to simulate the feeling of the wind in your face as you cycle, reminding you of Earth.
On Mars you wouldn’t be able to go outside much and would still need to exercise, so something like this in your house might be a useful addition to help you stay fit.
The pedal power from the bike powers a small light. Seeing the results of your exercise provides a useful and fun incentive to exercise more! This is a prototype and could potentially be used to power something else if it was scaled up. If you cycled for fifteen minutes or so perhaps you could generate enough power to send an email home to friends on Earth.
Human power production could provide a useful power source for energy use, from sophisticated exercise machines to biogas generators.
The work of designer Melle Smets looks how we could make human power plants that are both energy efficient, and fun to exercise. Their designs for The Human Power Plant plan to convert a 22 floor vacant building on the campus of Utrecht University into an entirely human powered student house.
