Solar Power Satellites

It is past time that we cleaned up the orbital space above our planet before we send anything else up. How long before we cannot safely launch or repair what's up there?
 
And now the weight penalty just dropped
techxplore.com

Proposed design could double the efficiency of lightweight solar cells for space-based applications

When it comes to supplying energy for space exploration and settlements, commonly available solar cells made of silicon or gallium arsenide are still too heavy to be feasibly transported by rocket. To address this challenge, a wide variety of lightweight alternatives are being explored...
techxplore.com techxplore.com


"The weight of 2D TMDC solar cells is 100 times less than silicon or gallium arsenide solar cells, so suddenly these cells become a very appealing technology."
 
A space solar power prototype has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly beam power through space and direct a detectable amount of energy toward Earth for the first time. The experiment proves the viability of tapping into a near-limitless supply of power in the form of energy from the sun from space.
Click to expand...
www.space.com

Scientists beam solar power to Earth from space for 1st time ever

The Space Solar Power Demonstrator's MAPLE experiment was able to wirelessly transfer collected solar power to receivers in space and direct energy to Earth.
www.space.com www.space.com
 
Some news
phys.org

Examining our options for a lunar solar power satellite

The concept of gathering some of the unlimited sunlight available in space, then transmitting it down to users, was first developed to serve the clean energy needs of planet Earth. But Space-Based Solar Power can also work for the moon.
phys.org phys.org
phys.org

Scientists look at feasibility of power beaming through the Venus atmosphere

A few weeks ago, a team of scientists from Caltech announced that they had successfully transmitted energy from an orbiting satellite down to Earth. It wasn't a lot of energy, but it showed that it was possible.
phys.org phys.org

Watch that debris though:
phys.org

Preventing traffic accidents to the moon and back

With dozens of missions headed to the space between Earth and the moon over the next 10 years, there's bound to be traffic.
phys.org phys.org
 
Now--could a powersat also double as space-based radar--if the antenna can be reconfigured?
techxplore.com

Leveraging the role of dynamic reconfigurable antennas

We are living in the realm of Industry 4.0 today, which is a digital paradigm referring to the integration of cutting-edge computing and digital technologies into global industries. Some of the key technologies in smart industries and smart factories are the industrial Internet of Things (IoT)...
techxplore.com techxplore.com
 
publiusr said:
Some news
phys.org

Examining our options for a lunar solar power satellite

The concept of gathering some of the unlimited sunlight available in space, then transmitting it down to users, was first developed to serve the clean energy needs of planet Earth. But Space-Based Solar Power can also work for the moon.
phys.org phys.org
phys.org

Scientists look at feasibility of power beaming through the Venus atmosphere

A few weeks ago, a team of scientists from Caltech announced that they had successfully transmitted energy from an orbiting satellite down to Earth. It wasn't a lot of energy, but it showed that it was possible.
phys.org phys.org

Watch that debris though:
phys.org

Preventing traffic accidents to the moon and back

With dozens of missions headed to the space between Earth and the moon over the next 10 years, there's bound to be traffic.
phys.org phys.org
Click to expand...

Only advantage of lunar based power station is if they can fabricate most of the power generating equipment insitu.
 
There is no atmosphere on the moon. No life either. Night temperatures are deadly freezing. Why would you bother not to get your casual nuclear power station?
Let's keep solar harvested power where there is life.
 
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There has been some interesting research on the Sun lately:
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-energy-harvesting-law-breaking-device.html

“The connection between an object’s ability to absorb and emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation—its absorptive and emissive efficiencies—has long been explained by something known as Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation. The paper describing the work, “Direct Observation of Kirchhoff Thermal Radiation Law Violation,” appears in the July 24 issue of the journal Nature Photonics.”

“‘Our study shows that it is possible to break the equality of Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation with a device placed in a **moderate magnetic field. **The device itself combines a material that has a strong magnetic-field response with a patterned structure that enhances absorption and emission in infrared wavelengths.'”

As it happens---magnetics may also be an explanation for why the corona is so hot:

--and Dark Energy, perhaps?
phys.org

Have we detected dark energy? Scientists say it's a possibility

A new study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and reported in the journal Physical Review D, suggests that some unexplained results from the XENON1T experiment in Italy may have been caused by dark energy, and not the dark matter the experiment was designed to detect.
phys.org phys.org
They constructed a physical model to help explain the results, which may have originated from dark energy particles produced in a region of the Sun with strong magnetic fields...

Maybe a Dyson Harrop?

Dyson–Harrop satellite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The biggest reason I want SPS is so it can also serve as a protection against solar kill shots against our electrical grid:

That has to be in space.

Solar magnetics is a field to watch.
 
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Regarding Dark Energy publiusr, let's wait and see it may be a false positive. But you can never know for sure, I would like to know what the cause of Dark Energy is.
 
publiusr said:
Maybe a Dyson Harrop?

Dyson–Harrop satellite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

On the subject of Dyson Harrop, the wiki says

A relatively small Dyson–Harrop satellite using a 1-centimetre-wide copper wire 300 metres long, a receiver 2 metres wide and a sail 10 metres in diameter, sitting at roughly the same distance from the sun as the Earth, could generate 1.7 megawatts of power – enough for about 1000 family homes in the US. Larger sizes could produce far greater amounts of power, even exceeding the current usage of Earth. Satellites could be placed anywhere in the solar system, and networks of satellites could combine to generate terawatts of power.


Anyone know what size we would be talking about for the 'larger' size?
 
Well…if they could be put nearer the Sun…

SMES systems might be a part of all this:

Lunar Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (LSMES) - NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) is an energy storage system that stores electrical energy in the form of a magnetic field by passing direct current through a superconducting coil. The conductor for carrying the current operates at cryogenic temperatures where it becomes a...
ntrs.nasa.gov ntrs.nasa.gov

Superconducting magnetic energy storage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

I seem to remember 160 km cables touted for in-space use.

The easiest thing to construct from a metal asteroid would be cables…used to cut bits off—like Kursk—mesh nets…to separate binaries for artificial gravity on the inward sides facing each other.

The wires themselves could detach and navigate.

Turn more mass into surface area that can navigate via fields.
 
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The killer is costs to orbit. SpaceX has gotten the Falcon 9 cost per kg to orbit down to $2700, and their goal for Spaceship is $10/kg. Not a typo. Ten dollars per kilogram to low earth orbit.

IIRC, the breakeven cost one of my college profs was talking about for SPS was $100/kg in 2011 dollars, $135/kg in 2022 dollars.

edwest4 said:
Submarines powered by batteries? It could happen.

www.navaltoday.com

Italian Navy’s U212 submarine project moves a step closer to production

Italian Navy's U212 near-future submarine (NFS) project has moved a step forward after the lithium-ion battery system to be installed on the submarines completed its System Design Review (SDR).
www.navaltoday.com www.navaltoday.com
Click to expand...
Submarines have been powered by batteries since the early 1900s. A combustion engine spins a generator, a battery stores power in excess of what is needed to push the sub through the water while surfaced or snorkeling, and an electric motor spins the prop(s) when completely submerged.

And the Japanese have been running LiPo batteries in their last two Soryu-class and their Taigei class subs for the last 5 years.


Orionblamblam said:
Trying to use powdered glass as a medium to shed vast quantities of heat seems a dubious prospect. Note that the difference between 2 cm down and 10 cm down is around 100 kelvin. This indicates that lunar regolith is a *really* good insulator. Which means that it'd be a terrible medium to conduct heat away.
Click to expand...
So refine the regolith into oxygen and aluminum, then use the aluminum as your radiator material. Not as thermally conductive as silver, but it's up there so you don't have to pay to send it up. And you want the oxygen for your colonists to breathe, anyways, so you're going to have a lot of scrap aluminum to do something with.


publiusr said:
And now the weight penalty just dropped
techxplore.com

Proposed design could double the efficiency of lightweight solar cells for space-based applications

When it comes to supplying energy for space exploration and settlements, commonly available solar cells made of silicon or gallium arsenide are still too heavy to be feasibly transported by rocket. To address this challenge, a wide variety of lightweight alternatives are being explored...
techxplore.com techxplore.com


"The weight of 2D TMDC solar cells is 100 times less than silicon or gallium arsenide solar cells, so suddenly these cells become a very appealing technology."
Click to expand...
What % of SPS weight is the solar cells? Because being able to cut the total mass lifted to orbit down to 850 tonnes from 8500 would be awesome. Though I suspect that the real reduction is going to be more like 4250 tonnes from 8500.
 
Scott Kenny said:
The killer is costs to orbit. SpaceX has gotten the Falcon 9 cost per kg to orbit down to $2700, and their goal for Spaceship is $10/kg. Not a typo. Ten dollars per kilogram to low earth orbit.
Click to expand...
No kidding - that's what true *reusability* will do for you. You're preaching to the choir here - this is essentially what my (predominately misspent, because of having to put food on the table and pay the mortgage) professional life socalled *career* has been all about.
 
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10$ per pound (or kg, doesn't make a significant difference) was Truax Sea Dragon long term objective, achievable by orbiting a few million pounds... needless to say, Starship has a slightly more realistic business case.
 
Scott Kenny said:
What % of SPS weight is the solar cells? Because being able to cut the total mass lifted to orbit down to 850 tonnes from 8500 would be awesome. Though I suspect that the real reduction is going to be more like 4250 tonnes from 8500.
Click to expand...
The glass can be lightweight and strong:
phys.org

Researchers build a DNA structure and coat it with glass, creating a very low density, very strong material

Materials that are both strong and lightweight could improve everything from cars to body armor. But usually, the two qualities are mutually exclusive. Now, University of Connecticut researchers and colleagues have developed an extraordinarily strong, lightweight material using two unlikely...
phys.org

Bootstrapping is what may help.

Atomic reactor driven vehicle on the Moon leaves highly reflective material in its wake.

This provides power so that other vehicles can do the same.

So the mass-constraints are eased.

Now, I take it Earth has a 1km wide trojan:

(614689) 2020 XL5 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Now, if it is rich in carbon….perhaps the DNA glass idea can be had…or a cable extruded.

Why a cable?

I can’t pick up a 500 pound weight…but chain segments?

Much easier to drag around.

The raw materials are there—they just need agency.

Over time…the Moon generates more and more power…that is beamed to the Trojans for their empowerment…
 
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Archibald said:
10$ per pound (or kg, doesn't make a significant difference) was Truax Sea Dragon long term objective, achievable by orbiting a few million pounds... needless to say, Starship has a slightly more realistic business case.
Click to expand...
It's all a question of technology and scale. I hope competition will drive to the most competitive value in the not too distant future.
 
When you see the cost of utilities, here down on earth, I guess you can be confident that cost to orbit isn't much an adjustment variable as it was. (and beamed energy from Space cut out the cost of infrastructure to transport energy to you - see the stupidity of charging highway for EV).
But hell yeah, on-orbit manufacturing or Lunar based industrial plants have an obvious path to takeoff.
 
The best thing is…no protestor can monkey-wrench it.

Now this may sound irresponsible…but let me throw this out there.

Say a Moon-bound Starship opens its maw and just releases a big roll of steel at a mountain summit.

That steel stops and rolls down…and part of the summit is—perhaps—knocked into orbit.

The Starship just swings past…and a waiting craft in orbit captures the biggest hunk.

Might that get more mass off the Moon than trying to launch it?

Can’t hurt a lump of steel…no braking needed.

The summit?

Just a few thruster puffs to wrangle it.

Messy though.
 
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publiusr said:
The best thing is…no protestor can monkey-wrench it.

Now this may sound irresponsible…but let me throw this out there.

Say a Moon-bound Starship opens its maw and just releases a big roll of steel at a mountain summit.

That steel stops and rolls down…and part of the summit is—perhaps—knocked into orbit.

The Starship just swings past…and a waiting craft in orbit captures the biggest hunk.

Might that get more mass off the Moon than trying to launch it?

Can’t hurt a lump of steel…no braking needed.

The summit?

Just a few thruster puffs to wrangle it.

Messy though.
Click to expand...
I honestly do not get it - what is the mission objective there?
 
I just want to rebound on this because there is a sociological aspect that is too often sidelined: space financial dividends and capitalism isn't something that is safeguarded by present industrial powers.
It is often understood, especially In the "West", that Space development is something where Western powers enjoy long term initiative, only concurrenced by a lagging China (see what happened to European technical capital that was wasted by a generation of lazy professionals). Fact is that a throughful analysis of what is ahead of us would show that this is probably not the case.

When free entrepreneurship Space will start its long planned endeavors to put professionals in space to produce, prospect, mine and manufacture products, the high rate of casualties, low social and legal status or benefits will tend to attract a majority of non-westerners that are more in a situation to cope with such challenge: high birth rate (I mean there a large amount of young professionals available on the job market willing to take risks for a lower pay), mass education, low economical prospects on earth (thinking that African and Middle Eastern youth will still dies en-masses trying to reach the safe heaven of Europe is an illusion).
Then capital development has always played the same partition: among those that survive the ordeal being sent on dangerous missions across space, there will be those who thrives and prosper, getting more experienced than the lot and tearing benefits from the hard learned knowledge to growth a capital and become major players.

I have already written how the first nation to harvest a 100000lb gold from a meteor (or any other high value minerals) will change the face of financial power on earth for ever, ending the equilibrium that has prevailed since colonialism. In the light of those assumptions, that nation may well be a third world country.

It is fundamental that this aspect prevails in long term planing. Not as a political ordeal, but as a variable when projections are made. Unregulated Space could eradicate the paradigm of low cost long term loans to entrepreneurs pushing them for a higher rate, short term RoI.

In essence, without a segregated financial system (I have suggested a Lunar safe haven regarding taxation), space industry will face a phase where massification will be detrimental to sciences and exploration and imparts chaos on its birthing planet economy and biosphere (Earth).
 
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The steel can roll down where it can be used…and orbiting chunks processed in microgravity.

To land the steel…via rockets…and to put mass in a temporary Lunar orbit…via rockets…would need much more fuel than spallation…which uses the *same* energy to land a refined product (lithobraking with extreme prejudice) as it takes to liberate a tiny asteroid for harvest.

It wouldn’t be the first time:
www.sciencealert.com

Asteroid Found Orbiting Earth Might Be a Chunk of The Moon

The Moon dominates our view of the night sky.
www.sciencealert.com www.sciencealert.com

That might be useful as well.
No erosion to weaken that rock…broke off in one big piece perhaps.

My tube television works better when I hit it.

Dart liberated some boulders after all.
 
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martinbayer said:
I honestly do not get it - what is the mission objective there?
Click to expand...

Martin,

In the U.S., the primary goal is get rich as quickly as possible. So the cost for doing anything has to be CHEAP. Nothing less... er more.

www.astroforge.io

Two steps closer to mining in deep space: Announcing two AstroForge missions for 2023

Last May, we closed a $13M seed round to jumpstart our vision to become the first commercial company to mine an asteroid and bring the materials back to Earth.
www.astroforge.io www.astroforge.io
 
edwest4 said:
Martin,

In the U.S., the primary goal is get rich as quickly as possible. So the cost for doing anything has to be CHEAP. Nothing less... er more.

www.astroforge.io

Two steps closer to mining in deep space: Announcing two AstroForge missions for 2023

Last May, we closed a $13M seed round to jumpstart our vision to become the first commercial company to mine an asteroid and bring the materials back to Earth.
www.astroforge.io www.astroforge.io
Click to expand...
Hello Ed, I fully get that, and as a guest worker/expat living in SoCal I'm *completely* onboard with it, believe you me, but I'm still at a *TRULY* fundamental loss of what "a big roll of steel" is supposed to have to do with the topic of this thread??? Someone, anyone, please enlighten me...
 
Just trying to find ways to liberate lunar materials for SPS and land materials at the same time. :)

The idea of magnetic fields allowing an end run around Kirchhoff law is actually what intrigues me the most.

It would allow better energy collection and help with camouflage, as per the phys.org article in my post #91 above.

Perhaps there is also a connection as to why the Sun’s corona is so very hot.

There may yet be a further energy breakthrough here…

Sun-shield in the news
phys.org

Sun 'umbrella' tethered to asteroid might help mitigate climate change

Earth is rapidly warming and scientists are developing a variety of approaches to reduce the effects of climate change. István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, has proposed a novel approach—a solar shield to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting Earth...
phys.org phys.org
 
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This will be of use for SPS radiators
phys.org

Optimizing heat exchange flow in microgravity

Planes, trains, automobiles… and spacecraft. While all four of these transportation innovations rely on fuel for power, another key component is thermal management. Without controlling the distribution and flow of heat inside a system, such as the International Space Station and other commercial...
phys.org phys.org

It seems the Sun produces gamma rays out the wazoo---and more...
phys.org

Scientists discover the highest-energy light coming from the sun

Sometimes, the best place to hide a secret is in broad daylight. Just ask the sun.
phys.org phys.org
"After looking at six years' worth of data, out popped this excess of gamma rays," Nisa said. "When we first saw it, we were like, 'We definitely messed this up. The sun cannot be this bright at these energies.'"

Feel the burn
phys.org

Giant solar eruption felt on Earth, moon and Mars

A coronal mass ejection erupted from the sun on 28 October 2021 and was spread over such a wide area that Mars and Earth, while on opposite sides of the sun and around 250 million kilometers apart, received an influx of energetic particles.
phys.org phys.org
phys.org

Geomagnetic field protects Earth from electron showers

Understanding the ionosphere high in the Earth's atmosphere is important due to its effects on communications systems, satellites and crucial chemical features including the ozone layer. New insights into the activity of high energy electrons have come from a simulation study led by geophysicist...
phys.org phys.org
 
Once the Amazon forest dries up into a savanna we'll have a lot of empty land to put a receiver array for SPS! Too late? nahhh.
 
More on the subject
techxplore.com

Solar farms in space are possible, say scientists

It's viable to produce low-cost, lightweight solar panels that can generate energy in space, according to new research from the Universities of Surrey and Swansea.
techxplore.com techxplore.com

Mining may help
phys.org

Two groups look at the economic viability of mining asteroids

Two teams of economists have conducted economic assessments of mining asteroids—one of them is a trio with one member each from the University of Tor Rome Vergata, the University of Maryland and Middlebury College. They looked at asteroid mining as part of the next logical step in monetizing...
phys.org phys.org

Solar news
techxplore.com

How robots can help find the solar energy of the future

Solar energy is one of the most promising ways to power the world of the future. However, creating more efficient solar cells requires finding new and better materials.
techxplore.com techxplore.com

techxplore.com

3D-printed reactor core makes solar fuel production more efficient

In recent years, engineers at ETH Zurich have developed the technology to produce liquid fuels from sunlight and air. In 2019, they demonstrated the entire thermochemical process chain under real conditions for the first time, in the middle of Zurich, on the roof of ETH Machine Laboratory. These...
techxplore.com techxplore.com

phys.org

Scientists develop new method to create stable, efficient next-gen solar cells

Next-generation solar materials are cheaper and more sustainable to produce than traditional silicon solar cells, but hurdles remain in making the devices durable enough to withstand real-world conditions. A new technique developed by a team of international scientists could simplify the...
phys.org phys.org

techxplore.com

Breakthrough synthesis method improves solar cell stability

Solar cell efficiency has soared in recent years due to light-harvesting materials like halide perovskites, but the ability to produce them reliably at scale continues to be a challenge.
techxplore.com techxplore.com
 

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