Energy from space
Wed, Sep 17, 2008
Post filled in: Feature Post, Space, World Problems
Our planet needs more and more energy as years pass, and the idea that this energy could come from outer space is getting heard stronger and more often with each passing day. For about 50 years people have been fascinated by this idea and now, John Mankins, president of the Space Power Association made a technical demonstration which led to the idea that this project could actually become practical.
Using microwaves and transmitting them from Maui to the nearby Hawaii, he managed to show that energy could be transmitted through all the atmosphere. As you could have noticed from the right side of the site, we promoted a programme, Discovery Channel’s Project Earth which featured some really interesting ideas.
The project that Mankins developed was featured there too, and it took only four months to prepare, costing less than US$1 million. This work brought together specialists from the US and Japan, making it obvious that “it is possible to make real progress quickly, affordably and internationally”. The thing is that solar panels connect just a fraction from the sun’s rays, even in the hot sunny days. Placing them in space would be very different, as a square meter will collect 250 watts. The energy could then be sent back to earth in the form of microwaves, who go through the atmosphere in a way that sun rays don’t. This is where the particular project came up, trying to prove the last part of the idea.
They sent a 20-watt which went to more than 100 kms, but it was not well collimated, as the energy which arrived in Hawaii was less than a watt. Still, the results were promising and further investments would almost definitely lead to a spectacular development. This is what Mankins hopes for too, but he estimates the price at for a 5–10 megawatt pilot plant in orbit in less than 10 years at about $10 billion, using conventional satellite lanchers. Scientists are reserved in what concerns this issue, and it’s absolutely normal to have a rough start, especially because this was a dream even a few years ago. Still, this small step might just be the necessary impulse to make people think more seriously about achieving this goal.
“I think it’s an idea whose time may have come,” says Roger Harrison, director of the Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies in Colorado Springs. “I would be a little sceptical, but I’m more than happy to be proven wrong.”
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Andrei is no scientist, but from an early age, he has been fascinated by science; that's why he went to college, and signed up for Geophysics. Feeling that there's a huge gap between science and average people, he rallied TP, started ZME Science, and gave it a green twist too.
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September 18th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
“Our planet needs more and more energy as years pass…”
No it doesn’t! The exponential increasing human population that inhabit it does. There’s a big difference b/w the two.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
‘Energy from Space’ Sick! You techno wizards think your gonna save this sinking ship! That discovery show is such a bunch of futurist crap! As if high technology is the answer to our problems. As a smart man once said, “Our problems stem from our solutions”. Lets be clear about how energy consumption and resources are really affected by population and economic ‘growth’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY
We don’t want your techno fixes, we want to feel human again! Stop watching Star Trek reruns for a second and get real. We have to stop our culture’s super consumption of energy not invent a new source of it to consume. We don’t need new technology we need a NEW CULTURE!
September 18th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Power from space will seem feasible until the first time energy satellites become war-time or terrorist targets.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Worlds greatest weapon ever invented. Zaaapppp! Take that Fidel!
September 18th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
“No it doesn’t! The exponential increasing human population that inhabit it does. There’s a big difference b/w the two.”
Energy usage is exponentially increasing for each person on the planet.
“We don’t need new technology we need a NEW CULTURE!”
What tech do you suggest we get rid of, or cease development on? You can thank technology for your very existence. Ever had an operation? Taken antibiotics? Used a toilet? Medical technology and basic sanitation have more than double our life expectancy in the last century. And all this tech NEEDS energy.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Beat to analysis of the defects of the lead sentence, I have to wonder which microwave frequency will be used?
$10B will build a lot more solar cells on earth with a much faster EROI.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm
I am very happy that I found this site.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 pm
As the human population increases, more and more energy and space are needed. Most Power plants take up valuable space that could be used for more productive things such as crops and use limited energy sources. Energy from outer space would free up more land, while harnessing endlessly renewable (as far as human beings are concerned) energy that could have potentially no limits on output depending on how many transmitters are produced.
As for the cost of building these machines, it will decrease in time and more advanced versions (if persued as a viable source of technology) just as all expensive devices (cars, computers) once did.
August 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I’m surprised by the number of antihuman responses. Yes, we could turn around and throw it all away. That leads to a remnant population of a few million (worldwide), squatting around open fires, telling tales of the lost Golden Age when their ancestors flew and domesticated the ligntning and even trod on the moon.
Some of you are saying “But wait, we could Just Stand Still, develop a Sustainable Lifestyle and be subsistence farmers / herdsmen forever.” Won’t work. Climate changes, even without anthropogenic effects. The average length of an interglacial period is 10K years, and we’ve been in one for 11K years. The last Ice Age very nearly drove humanity to extinction, and we might not get lucky again. And that’s assuming that another Dinosaur Killer doesn’t fall out of the dark, and that the Earth’s magnetic field doesn’t flip again (lots of those in the geological record), letting the solar wind fry us while the field goes through zero.
The only hope for the long-term survival of our species is to get some of our eggs out of this basked before something steps on it, and the inexpensive, large-scale access to Earth orbit required by space-based solar power is an indespensible first step.
August 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Any increase in energy coming to earth will increase the greenhouse effect, since it will end up as heat, except for that tiny portion escaping the earth as electromagnetic radiation.
Unless the solar panels shade the earth whenever they’re collecting power.