Reythia
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Registered: 11-2005
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Solar Power Collectors
QS2 and I had a little debate on this topic earlier, so when I read this article, I felt required to post it here.
CNN.com: "Harvest the Sun — From Space"
For the record, I am still highly skeptical of the practicality of this project and also have significant concerns about possible side-effects of the beaming technology. However, I do agree with this part of the article:
quote:
Still, because building the first operational space solar power system will be very costly, a practical first step would be to conduct a test using the International Space Station as a “construction shack” to house the astronauts and equipment. The station’s existing solar panels could be used for the demonstration project, and its robotic manipulator arms could assemble the large transmitting antenna. While the station’s location in orbit would permit only intermittent transmission of power back to Earth, a successful test would serve as what scientists call “proof of concept.”
Skeptical though I may be, I think it's only fair to give the project's supporters the chance to prove me wrong. Alas, with current funding what it is (or, rather, isn't) at both NASA and ESA, I don't see this happening soon. 
---  -- YAR! |
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7/23/2008, 9:39 pm
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QS2
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Registered: 03-2006
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Re: Solar Power Collectors
I can understand the skepticism, such things must always be proven in the end, no matter how good the theory might sound.
As for the funding, it's kind of hard to say. Global warming is a huge wild card and it's only going to be drawing more and more funds to develop methods to combat it in the future. As such it is possible that some day in the future this project would also receive substantial funding to see if it could potentially help.
(This is mostly because we're only seeing the very tip of the coming problems, the arctic pack ice for instance seems to be seeing vast changes lately, possibly catastrophic changes even)
To get back on topic though, such a demonstration on the ISS certainly at first glance seems like the cheapest way to demonstrate this, unless some how I'm missing a major problem..., maybe launching a small satellite would be easier despite appearances?
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7/23/2008, 9:53 pm
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Reythia
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Registered: 11-2005
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Re: Solar Power Collectors
Well, I'd imagine the problem with a small satellite is that its solar panels would be (necessarily) small. And sometime scaling a project up can cause major problems. Certainly, one of the big problems a large space solar power array would have would be unfurling the array itself (and also keeping the different pieces of the array from running into each other, but that's a separate problem that we have a good idea how to solve already). One of the benefits of running the test on/near the ISS is that if the panels don't unfurl correctly, we've got people right there who can go out and see what got stuck -- and fix it. Similarly, if anything else fails to work, we've got people to check on it. That's a BIG plus, considering the large percentage of failed space missions that fail for "unknown" reasons.
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7/24/2008, 4:30 pm
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