Astrium Hopes To Test Grabbing Solar Energy From Orbit

goldaryn writes "Word from the BBC today is that Europe's biggest space company is seeking partners to help get a satellite-based solar power trial into orbit: 'EADS Astrium says the satellite system would collect the Sun's energy and transmit it to Earth via an infrared laser, to provide electricity. Space solar power has been talked about for more than 30 years as an attractive concept because it would be 'clean, inexhaustible, and available 24 hours a day.' However, there have always been question marks over its cost, efficiency and safety. But Astrium believes the technology is close to proving its maturity.'"

Comments

maturity?

[Lord Ender]

It may be close to proving is viability, but there's no way anyone has any business calling this not-even-prototyped tech "mature."

This DOES NOT COMPUTE

[Maury Markowitz]

Just do the math, it doesn't work. The cost of launch utterly WIPES OUT any hope of income. Look, rockets are expensive, electricity isn't. That's all there is to it.

Want numbers? Fine:

http://matter2energy.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/space-power/

Re:This DOES NOT COMPUTE

[pixelpusher220]

well electricity is only 'not expensive' if you don't account for the 'cost' of the CO2 (and other pollutants) being released. Just like if I dump my waste into the river, the 'cost' isn't borne by me, but by anyone downstream. To me it's cheap.

What is the cost of global warming? How much do you amortize against the fossil fuels? We frankly don't know yet, but many indications are that it's going to be a massively significant amount. If 400 million people need to relocate because of sea-level rise, you want to put a cost estimate on that? Or just take Florida if that's easier to understand, how much to relocate 1/2 the state?

Re:This DOES NOT COMPUTE

[Maury Markowitz]

> don't account for the 'cost' of the CO2

Which might be a good argument (but isn't) if you're comparing a solar panel in space with a coal plant on Earth. But I'm comparing a solar panel in space with a solar panel on Earth. There's no hidden cost to hide behind.

Besides, have you ever seen a rocket? Not exactly green power!

Maury

Re:This DOES NOT COMPUTE

[BJ_Covert_Action]

Launch costs are dropping and will continue to do so as SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and other commercial vendors start to compete in the industry. I don't know that the savings will be enough. But it is worth keeping in mind that space is going to become quite a bit more accessible in the next five to ten years. Also, if you took the time to assemble the orbital solar panels in a modular manner, the way it was done with the ISS (but using more robotic construction techniques in place of human ones), you could piggy back your component launch costs with other payloads thus further reducing launch costs. It may not be affordable right now, but again, never rule out the future.

Also, doing this type of thing at least once or twice would be interesting from an R&D and proof of concept standpoint alone. Perhaps the conclusion would be, "Right now it costs too much, we will need future technology to make something like this work." But, trying it out will give you much more hard data on what that future technology is and, possibly, how to develop it later. It will also force you to take those kinds of requirements into your mission design from the get go, thus providing valuable experience, knowledge, and science.

In short, the concept is not a total waste of time.

Makes no sense

[jpmorgan]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: orbital solar makes no economic sense. You get 4 times the power capacity for a given amount of solar panel surface area, compared to building in a desert somewhere, at a mere thousand times the cost! Maybe someday it will make sense, but not any time soon.

Now there is an exception to this: if you've got an efficient system for sending power down to a ground station then there is potential for power distribution to remote sites. The US military would love this, as it would eliminate much of the insatiable thirst for diesel in places like Afghanistan and simplify their logistics enormously. But even for this why would you want to build a big heavy satellite with huge solar panels? Just build a satellite that picks up power from a base station and beams it back down. Simpler, cheaper and more reliable.

Re:Isn't this loading more heat onto Earth?

[pixelpusher220]

As you say, the problem is not extra energy being added to Earth, but the reduction in the amount of heat energy being allowed to leave earth.

If by adding the energy in the proposed manner we can stop the extra CO2 from being added to the atmosphere, then likely the extra energy would just radiate into space.

And since you're wondering, the amount of extra energy being grabbed pales in comparison to the amount of energy already hitting the earth. These panels aren't going to be even a tiny fraction of the size of the earth.

Re:uhh...

[ZorbaTHut]

You know what I always think is kind of weird?

People have this view of big-business as being this lumbering creature trying to save a cent everywhere they possibly can. Remove safety here, cut corners there, as long as it works for five minutes after it's sold, it's good enough. And, yes, in some ways this is justified. But on the other hand, this same technique is used everywhere - everywhere - in skyscrapers, in cargo ships, in the ridiculously complicated personal computer that you are using right now to read this.

We know how to manage risk, and we know how to manage safety. We can make things exactly as safe as we want to, assuming we're willing to pay the money.

We live in a world where we combust petrochemicals inside high-precision aluminum devices to fling multi-ton metal boxes around many times faster than we can run. When we get to our destination we purchase mass-produced foodstuffs, many of which have never been inspected by humans. We go to work in megaton cages of steel and concrete, sometimes in areas where the ground itself is known to shake with deadly force, and we sit there eating our food while sitting mere feet from copper cables carrying enough electricity to kill us a hundred times over, protected only by drywall and rubber insulation.

All of these things were provided by the lowest bidder.

And then we go home and complain about the scary new lasers and how people don't make things like they used to, damn them, they'll destroy us all, if only they didn't cut corners.

I dunno. Somehow I'm just not all that worried.