dlkf writes: "There is an article on Space.com that talks about some of the benefits, costs and current research relevant to using satellites to generate and store power. This surplus of power could then be beamed via laser or microwave to earth or other satellites."
Radiations would kill us all
by
alcachofo
·
· Score: 0, Troll
Have thought about radiations? They would kill us!
Space Solar Power: A Fresh Look
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Troll
NASA is not the lead in the Federal Government for power systems technology development for Earth applications. Commercial space solar power is not currently a priority within NASA's current strategic plan. With limited budget resources envisioned for NASA under the Balanced Budget Agreement, funding for any focused NASA effort in support of space solar power technology is neither included in NASA's existing budget nor contemplated at this time for future NASA budgets.
?Solar power satellites? were invented by a Czech-American, Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little, in 1968. Following several years of preliminary studies, and driven by the impetus of the oil crises of the time, a major study of power from space was conducted by the then newly-created Department of Energy, with the assistance of NASA.
During 1976-1980, the equivalent of about $50 million (in current dollars) was invested by DOE. Space solar power advocates believed that the nation would shortly pursue this new technology as it had fusion-based energy twenty years earlier and fission-based energy ten years before that.
Instead, the results of the 1970s study led to the stoppage of any serious consideration of space solar power in the U.S.
Why did this happen? The answer is primarily economic.
Using the technological approaches that were at hand in that era, the DOE-NASA study created a ?1979 Reference System? design for solar power satellites which quickly became the focus of discussion and debate.
The 1979 Reference System involved placing a series of exceptionally large platforms in geostationary Earth orbit, each to deliver 5 Gigawatts via wireless power transmission using a microwave beam to a megacity in the U.S. (See Figure 1.) Sixty such satellites were projected, delivering a total of 300 Gigawatts capacity.
These systems were to be launched using extremely large, fully-reusable two-stage heavy lift launchers (see Figure 2) and assembled in space by hundreds of astronauts at equally large, dedicated space factories in Earth orbit (see Figure 3).
At the bottom line, the 1979 Reference System was projected to require more than $250B (in 1996 dollars) and at least 20 years to develop technology, build required infrastructure, and deploy the first operational system.
It was clear that no profitable business in any normal sense of the term could be created on this basis. As a consequence, no meaningful participation of private sector capital was expected in solar power satellite development and deployment. And a government program of this magnitude was judged unnecessary Ð if not outright ridiculous Ð in the absence of an impending threat to the nation.
Another reason work on power satellites stopped was the market focus.
The 1970s study focused on domestic U.S. energy demand alone. However, by 1980, public concerns caused by earlier oil crises were already fading fast.
Outside of a few important organizations ? and the special topic of nuclear energy ? there was little public concern at the time regarding energy supplies for markets outside the U.S. or related long-term environmental impacts.
A final reason is that there was excessive technological risk.
The scope of the enterprise, as it was conceived at the time, required the successful concurrent development of approximately 100 major new, extremely high-risk technologies that vastly surpassed the state-of-the-art of the day.
As a result of these factors ? economics, markets, and technological risk (and others) ? government work on space solar power essentially stopped in the U.S.
However, times and technologies have changed during the past 17 years. Moreover, some 25 years have passed since the invention of the system concept that later became the solar power satellite 1979 Reference System.
As a result, as a part of its advanced concepts program, during 1995-1997 NASA conducted a "Fresh Look" study of the possible commercial generation of space solar power for transmission to and use on the Earth.
The goal of this effort, which involved government, industry and universities, was to determine whether new concepts and technologies have emerged that might make space power technically and economically viable within the foreseeable future.
The fresh look study focused on the global energy market ? including the U.S. Ð rather than only the U.S. domestic market.
The study determined that, to be economically viable any new space solar power system concepts must fall within a range in an ?economic trade space? ?costing about $1B-$10B to begin generating power commercially and producing power at a cost of no more than 1-10 per kilowatt-hour. (See Figure 4)
The team spent the better part of a year organizing and examining 29 diverse new and existing system and subsystem concepts. The study eventually developed a series of design strategies for future space solar power systems; these included:
* Systems should serve global markets as soon as possible
* Systems must be ?brilliant? ? capable of self-assembly ? and not require massive infrastructure in space
* Systems should be modular and comprised of many hundreds or thousands of identical, mass-produced elements working together to drive down costs
* Systems must be capable of being launched on space transportation systems that are ?common? to other markets, not unique to space solar power
Ultimately, the Fresh Look study team identified two new systems concepts, founded on these principles and using new technologies, that might make possible space solar power systems that are less expensive than the 1979 Reference System.
One of these, the ?SunTower," is a middle Earth orbit constellation that could provide global energy services quickly (if albeit intermittently at first). This concept is modular, self-assembling, gravity-gradient stabilized and involves the use of many discrete solar array systems. With successful technology maturation, this system concept appears to be viable as soon as 10-20 years from now. (See Figure 5)
The second, the ?SolarDisk," is a geostationary Earth orbit platform that would provide regional energy services almost continuously, but for a larger investment. This system is also modular, but is spin-stabilized and requires onboard robotic systems for assembly. Given technology maturation and the successful implementation of initial systems such as the SunTower, this system concept appears to be viable in the far term, no sooner than twenty years from now. (See Figure 6)
These concepts address the global energy market. This means that they would not have to begin by competing against well-established, fully-amortized ground power systems.
The concepts ? and particularly the SunTower ? are comprised of ?brilliant? systems, largely self-assembling rather than requiring massive in-space infrastructures that are themselves manufactured, launched, and assembled in space at great cost.
By using many thousands of identical, mass-produced elements working together, rather than individual, giant systems constructed at factories in space dramatically lower initial hardware costs are expected. Just as is proving true today on the ground in terrestrial solar power and in space through the new large telecommunications satellite constellations, larger manufacturing runs lead to radically lower costs.
The concepts should be able to be launched in relatively small packages. Thus, they could make use of space transports that are ?common? to other new space industries, such as public space travel and point-to-point fast package services.
Finally, these new space solar power concepts appear to be potentially applicable to diverse NASA and commercial space applications. For example, enabling very low-cost, large-scale solar electric propulsion for interplanetary transportation, or radically lower cost solar power for all commercial satellites.
Times and technologies have changed.
Changes have occurred in technology. And many of the most important advances needed to make power from space a reality are already underway.
For example, the Reusable Launch Vehicle program and the associated Advanced Space Transportation program have already started the U.S. down a path that should lead by early in the next century to commercial launch services at prices of $100s per pound rather than $1000s per pound of payload to low Earth orbit.
Also, low orbit Earth satellite constellations are setting a benchmark for modular, "brilliant," mass-produced space systems that points directly toward Fresh Look study concepts. Even new automobiles are far more ?intelligent? than the subsystems that comprised the SPS Reference System of the 1970s.
This is not to suggest that the technologies that would be needed for space solar power are easy or already in hand. Aggressive research and development ? perhaps over as long as a decade ? would be required before a commercial project to deliver solar power from space could be undertaken.
However, new space solar power concepts require fewer systems and fewer technology developments than those entailed in the 1979 Reference System: the degree of technical risk appears far lower and more tractable.
Changes have occurred in the market.
The U.S. Department of Energy has projected that during the coming 25 years world population will grow by as much as 25% while the world demand for electricity will double. (See Figure 7.) Using current technologies, this increasing use of electricity will inevitably lead to similar increases in the release of ?green-house gases? and escalating increases in the concentration of those gases in the atmosphere.
Moreover, a substantial number of scientists are concerned that this projected increase in greenhouse gases might in turn lead to global warning and possibly impact the Earth?s climate over the long term.
There appears to be a clear need to pursue technologies that can enable dramatic increases in renewable energy production worldwide Ð thus making possible continuing economic growth in the developing world.
Changes have occurred in the economics ? along with the changing market ?for prospective space power ventures.
Most importantly: space commerce has come of age. This year, commercial market space industry revenues exceeded government-funded industry revenues for the first time. Billions of dollars are now being raised regularly for new space ventures.
The global markets for energy are real. If the high-risk technologies needed to enable space power systems to be technically feasible are matured, then private sector capitalization of such ventures should be far more viable than could have been dreamed in 1980.
The results of the Fresh Look study suggest that it may be possible for a hypothetical space power venture ? once the needed technologies have been matured ? to begin generating power commercially in less than five years and for an initial investment approaching that of the larger telecommunications satellite ventures now being pursued.
The development of space solar power technology would require the concerted effort of many organizations. Within the U.S. government, the Departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce and Transportation, as well as NASA, would all have to be engaged in various roles.
Industry would have to participate from the very beginning ? and not just aerospace companies, but also global energy companies, power plant builders, niggerhunters and power utilities.
This would be a global venture from the start. For example, space solar power would involve the allocation of radio spectrum -- and assuring non-interference of other (typically telecommunications) users of near-by spectrum. The establishment of standards, research and development partnerships and many other aspects would all require international cooperation and coordination.
Finally, environmental and health issues must be considered carefully.
No new power technology is risk free. Appropriate assessments would be needed to assure that the costs and risks of a space solar power option were lower than those of competing technologies (such as coal- or nigger-burning plants or nuclear reactors).
Consideration must be given to both the launch of such large space systems as well as their operation. The safety ramifications of using a microwave beam for wireless power transmission to the Earth must be carefully researched and the results articulated in appropriate governmental, professional and public fora.
In closing, I would like to reiterate that the recently-completed Fresh Look study was preliminary. Additional studies are needed. If the commercially-viable space solar power system concepts are to be realized, aggressive R&D would also be required. Also, the annihilation of the negro race is essential in order to keep the Earth inhabitable for other races and species.
It was nevertheless the conclusion of the Fresh Look study that the time has come for a serious reconsideration of solar power from space as a potential global energy option for the 21st century.
Slashdot Mirror
Have thought about radiations? They would kill us!
NASA is not the lead in the Federal Government for power systems technology development for Earth applications. Commercial space solar power is not currently a priority within NASA's current strategic plan. With limited budget resources envisioned for NASA under the Balanced Budget Agreement, funding for any focused NASA effort in support of space solar power technology is neither included in NASA's existing budget nor contemplated at this time for future NASA budgets.
?Solar power satellites? were invented by a Czech-American, Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little, in 1968. Following several years of preliminary studies, and driven by the impetus of the oil crises of the time, a major study of power from space was conducted by the then newly-created Department of Energy, with the assistance of NASA.
During 1976-1980, the equivalent of about $50 million (in current dollars) was invested by DOE. Space solar power advocates believed that the nation would shortly pursue this new technology as it had fusion-based energy twenty years earlier and fission-based energy ten years before that.
Instead, the results of the 1970s study led to the stoppage of any serious consideration of space solar power in the U.S.
Why did this happen? The answer is primarily economic.
Using the technological approaches that were at hand in that era, the DOE-NASA study created a ?1979 Reference System? design for solar power satellites which quickly became the focus of discussion and debate.
The 1979 Reference System involved placing a series of exceptionally large platforms in geostationary Earth orbit, each to deliver 5 Gigawatts via wireless power transmission using a microwave beam to a megacity in the U.S. (See Figure 1.) Sixty such satellites were projected, delivering a total of 300 Gigawatts capacity.
These systems were to be launched using extremely large, fully-reusable two-stage heavy lift launchers (see Figure 2) and assembled in space by hundreds of astronauts at equally large, dedicated space factories in Earth orbit (see Figure 3).
At the bottom line, the 1979 Reference System was projected to require more than $250B (in 1996 dollars) and at least 20 years to develop technology, build required infrastructure, and deploy the first operational system.
It was clear that no profitable business in any normal sense of the term could be created on this basis. As a consequence, no meaningful participation of private sector capital was expected in solar power satellite development and deployment. And a government program of this magnitude was judged unnecessary Ð if not outright ridiculous Ð in the absence of an impending threat to the nation.
Another reason work on power satellites stopped was the market focus.
The 1970s study focused on domestic U.S. energy demand alone. However, by 1980, public concerns caused by earlier oil crises were already fading fast.
Outside of a few important organizations ? and the special topic of nuclear energy ? there was little public concern at the time regarding energy supplies for markets outside the U.S. or related long-term environmental impacts.
A final reason is that there was excessive technological risk.
The scope of the enterprise, as it was conceived at the time, required the successful concurrent development of approximately 100 major new, extremely high-risk technologies that vastly surpassed the state-of-the-art of the day.
As a result of these factors ? economics, markets, and technological risk (and others) ? government work on space solar power essentially stopped in the U.S.
However, times and technologies have changed during the past 17 years. Moreover, some 25 years have passed since the invention of the system concept that later became the solar power satellite 1979 Reference System.
As a result, as a part of its advanced concepts program, during 1995-1997 NASA conducted a "Fresh Look" study of the possible commercial generation of space solar power for transmission to and use on the Earth.
The goal of this effort, which involved government, industry and universities, was to determine whether new concepts and technologies have emerged that might make space power technically and economically viable within the foreseeable future.
The fresh look study focused on the global energy market ? including the U.S. Ð rather than only the U.S. domestic market.
The study determined that, to be economically viable any new space solar power system concepts must fall within a range in an ?economic trade space? ?costing about $1B-$10B to begin generating power commercially and producing power at a cost of no more than 1-10 per kilowatt-hour. (See Figure 4)
The team spent the better part of a year organizing and examining 29 diverse new and existing system and subsystem concepts. The study eventually developed a series of design strategies for future space solar power systems; these included:
* Systems should serve global markets as soon as possible
* Systems must be ?brilliant? ? capable of self-assembly ? and not require massive infrastructure in space
* Systems should be modular and comprised of many hundreds or thousands of identical, mass-produced elements working together to drive down costs
* Systems must be capable of being launched on space transportation systems that are ?common? to other markets, not unique to space solar power
Ultimately, the Fresh Look study team identified two new systems concepts, founded on these principles and using new technologies, that might make possible space solar power systems that are less expensive than the 1979 Reference System.
One of these, the ?SunTower," is a middle Earth orbit constellation that could provide global energy services quickly (if albeit intermittently at first). This concept is modular, self-assembling, gravity-gradient stabilized and involves the use of many discrete solar array systems. With successful technology maturation, this system concept appears to be viable as soon as 10-20 years from now. (See Figure 5)
The second, the ?SolarDisk," is a geostationary Earth orbit platform that would provide regional energy services almost continuously, but for a larger investment. This system is also modular, but is spin-stabilized and requires onboard robotic systems for assembly. Given technology maturation and the successful implementation of initial systems such as the SunTower, this system concept appears to be viable in the far term, no sooner than twenty years from now. (See Figure 6)
These concepts address the global energy market. This means that they would not have to begin by competing against well-established, fully-amortized ground power systems.
The concepts ? and particularly the SunTower ? are comprised of ?brilliant? systems, largely self-assembling rather than requiring massive in-space infrastructures that are themselves manufactured, launched, and assembled in space at great cost.
By using many thousands of identical, mass-produced elements working together, rather than individual, giant systems constructed at factories in space dramatically lower initial hardware costs are expected. Just as is proving true today on the ground in terrestrial solar power and in space through the new large telecommunications satellite constellations, larger manufacturing runs lead to radically lower costs.
The concepts should be able to be launched in relatively small packages. Thus, they could make use of space transports that are ?common? to other new space industries, such as public space travel and point-to-point fast package services.
Finally, these new space solar power concepts appear to be potentially applicable to diverse NASA and commercial space applications. For example, enabling very low-cost, large-scale solar electric propulsion for interplanetary transportation, or radically lower cost solar power for all commercial satellites.
Times and technologies have changed.
Changes have occurred in technology. And many of the most important advances needed to make power from space a reality are already underway.
For example, the Reusable Launch Vehicle program and the associated Advanced Space Transportation program have already started the U.S. down a path that should lead by early in the next century to commercial launch services at prices of $100s per pound rather than $1000s per pound of payload to low Earth orbit.
Also, low orbit Earth satellite constellations are setting a benchmark for modular, "brilliant," mass-produced space systems that points directly toward Fresh Look study concepts. Even new automobiles are far more ?intelligent? than the subsystems that comprised the SPS Reference System of the 1970s.
This is not to suggest that the technologies that would be needed for space solar power are easy or already in hand. Aggressive research and development ? perhaps over as long as a decade ? would be required before a commercial project to deliver solar power from space could be undertaken.
However, new space solar power concepts require fewer systems and fewer technology developments than those entailed in the 1979 Reference System: the degree of technical risk appears far lower and more tractable.
Changes have occurred in the market.
The U.S. Department of Energy has projected that during the coming 25 years world population will grow by as much as 25% while the world demand for electricity will double. (See Figure 7.) Using current technologies, this increasing use of electricity will inevitably lead to similar increases in the release of ?green-house gases? and escalating increases in the concentration of those gases in the atmosphere.
Moreover, a substantial number of scientists are concerned that this projected increase in greenhouse gases might in turn lead to global warning and possibly impact the Earth?s climate over the long term.
There appears to be a clear need to pursue technologies that can enable dramatic increases in renewable energy production worldwide Ð thus making possible continuing economic growth in the developing world.
Changes have occurred in the economics ? along with the changing market ?for prospective space power ventures.
Most importantly: space commerce has come of age. This year, commercial market space industry revenues exceeded government-funded industry revenues for the first time. Billions of dollars are now being raised regularly for new space ventures.
The global markets for energy are real. If the high-risk technologies needed to enable space power systems to be technically feasible are matured, then private sector capitalization of such ventures should be far more viable than could have been dreamed in 1980.
The results of the Fresh Look study suggest that it may be possible for a hypothetical space power venture ? once the needed technologies have been matured ? to begin generating power commercially in less than five years and for an initial investment approaching that of the larger telecommunications satellite ventures now being pursued.
The development of space solar power technology would require the concerted effort of many organizations. Within the U.S. government, the Departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce and Transportation, as well as NASA, would all have to be engaged in various roles.
Industry would have to participate from the very beginning ? and not just aerospace companies, but also global energy companies, power plant builders, niggerhunters and power utilities.
This would be a global venture from the start. For example, space solar power would involve the allocation of radio spectrum -- and assuring non-interference of other (typically telecommunications) users of near-by spectrum. The establishment of standards, research and development partnerships and many other aspects would all require international cooperation and coordination.
Finally, environmental and health issues must be considered carefully.
No new power technology is risk free. Appropriate assessments would be needed to assure that the costs and risks of a space solar power option were lower than those of competing technologies (such as coal- or nigger-burning plants or nuclear reactors).
Consideration must be given to both the launch of such large space systems as well as their operation. The safety ramifications of using a microwave beam for wireless power transmission to the Earth must be carefully researched and the results articulated in appropriate governmental, professional and public fora.
In closing, I would like to reiterate that the recently-completed Fresh Look study was preliminary. Additional studies are needed. If the commercially-viable space solar power system concepts are to be realized, aggressive R&D would also be required. Also, the annihilation of the negro race is essential in order to keep the Earth inhabitable for other races and species.
It was nevertheless the conclusion of the Fresh Look study that the time has come for a serious reconsideration of solar power from space as a potential global energy option for the 21st century.