Solar Power Satellites - Revision history

Cfrjlr: Reverted edits by Cfrjlr (Talk); changed back to last version by Bhn1700

2009-07-18T04:00:45Z

Reverted edits by Cfrjlr (Talk); changed back to last version by Bhn1700

Cfrjlr: /* See Also */ jeez i do not understand this new editor .. somebody will ahve to clean this up

2009-07-18T03:59:25Z

See Also: jeez i do not understand this new editor .. somebody will ahve to clean this up

Bhn1700 at 01:58, 18 March 2008

2008-03-18T01:58:51Z

Show changes

Bhn1700: /* Ethanol/Biodeisel */

2008-03-17T14:26:33Z

Ethanol/Biodeisel

Bhn1700: /* Ethanol/Biodeisel */

2008-03-17T03:59:28Z

Ethanol/Biodeisel

Bhn1700 at 03:52, 17 March 2008

2008-03-17T03:52:08Z

Cfrjlr: /* Current Developments */ fix url

2008-02-24T15:21:42Z

Current Developments: fix url

Cfrjlr: despaming

2008-02-24T15:17:30Z

despaming

Cfrjlr: Protected "Solar Power Satellites" [edit=autoconfirmed:move=autoconfirmed]

2008-02-24T15:16:36Z

Protected "Solar Power Satellites" [edit=autoconfirmed:move=autoconfirmed]

Cfrjlr: Reverted edits by 204.11.191.49 (Talk); changed back to last version by 211.7.138.14

2008-02-24T15:16:03Z

Reverted edits by 204.11.191.49 (Talk); changed back to last version by 211.7.138.14

@@ Line 192: / Line 192: @@
 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/22/3793/00141357.pdf?arnumber=141357  ]
-[[Center for Space Power]] Â· A NASA Resarch Partnership Center [     Normal   0   14         false   false   false                             MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
+[[Center for Space Power]] Â· A NASA Resarch Partnership Center [http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/ http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/]
 [[Category:Hardware]]

@@ Line 192: / Line 192: @@
 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/22/3793/00141357.pdf?arnumber=141357  ]
-[[Center for Space Power]] Â· A NASA Resarch Partnership Center [http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/ http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/]
+[[Center for Space Power]] Â· A NASA Resarch Partnership Center [     Normal   0   14         false   false   false                             MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
 [[Category:Hardware]]

@@ Line 138: / Line 138: @@
 Another issue: Ironically, terrestrial solar power has a more severe impact on terrestrial ecosystems and land usage than SPS rectennas.   Permanent shadowing of the soil from a solar panel kills the local flora and results in a dustbowl.   But agriculture can continue unabated beneath an SPS rectenna and soil erosion is thus mitigated.  SPS rectennas can be sited on prime agricultural land, terrestrial solar panels cannot.
-===Ethanol/Biodeisel===
+===Ethanol/Biodiesel===
 After oil is gone, Ethanol will compete with Hydrogen as fuel for motor vehicles and aircraft.
@@ Line 148: / Line 148: @@
 Does ethanol have a lower collateral cost than say, coal?  Probably.  But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantities of ethanol? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff)?  And what about the waste products of ethanol production?  New studies have also indicated that ethanol and biofuels lead to a worsening of global warming.  The increasing commodities prices of corn and soybean have lead to increased virgin acreage being converted to corn, soybean and other food crops.  (As other foods have gone up due to more acreage going to fuel crops and because feed grain prices have also risen.)  Virgin land, whether forest or grasslands are far better for soaking up CO2 then farmland.
 Interestingly, ethanol and SPS can coexist rather nicely. We can grow fields of cereal crops beneath the SPS rectennas, at least where the soil and climate allow it.

@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
 The benefit of SPS is that it has about the lowest collateral damage cost, when compared with the environmental damage of coal and nuclear, including the cost of nuclear station decommissioning.
-Does ethanol have a lower collateral cost than say, coal?  Probably.  But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantities of ethanol? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff)?  And what about the waste products of ethanol production?  New studies have also indicated that ethanol and biofuels lead to a worsening of global warming.  The increasing commodities prices of corn and soybean have lead to increased virgin acreage being converted to corn, soybean and other food crops.  (As other foods have gone up due to more acreage going to fuel crops and because feed grain prices have also risen.)
+Does ethanol have a lower collateral cost than say, coal?  Probably.  But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantities of ethanol? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff)?  And what about the waste products of ethanol production?  New studies have also indicated that ethanol and biofuels lead to a worsening of global warming.  The increasing commodities prices of corn and soybean have lead to increased virgin acreage being converted to corn, soybean and other food crops.  (As other foods have gone up due to more acreage going to fuel crops and because feed grain prices have also risen.)  Virgin land, whether forest or grasslands are far better for soaking up CO2 then farmland.
 Interestingly, ethanol and SPS can coexist rather nicely. We can grow fields of cereal crops beneath the SPS rectennas, at least where the soil and climate allow it.
 ===Other Renewables (wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal)===

@@ Line 113: / Line 113: @@
 - cost of meltdown - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs <BR>
 - cost of waste leakage - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs <BR>
 - social cost of draconian global security regimes (big brother)<BR>
@@ Line 131: / Line 132: @@
 Both solutions exceed the cost of the solar cells themselves and are conveniently ignored by most proponents of terrestrial solar power.
-Solution a) also suffers from political problems, similar to the international wrangling going on about the Tengiz oil field pipeline.
+Solution a) also suffers from political problems, similar to the international wrangling going on about the Tengiz oil field pipeline.  Long range transmission of power across the planet will also cause significant losses of power over transmission lines.
 Pipelines and power lines are political hot potatoes, nobody wants a hostile neighbor to have the ability to cut off their power or their oil.
@@ Line 143: / Line 144: @@
 However, it will not compete (on price) with coal or nuclear for grid electrical power. But neither will SPS.
-The benefit of SPS is that it has about the lowest collateral damage cost, when compared with the enviro damage of coal and nuclear, count the cost of nuclear station decommissioning.
+The benefit of SPS is that it has about the lowest collateral damage cost, when compared with the environmental damage of coal and nuclear, including the cost of nuclear station decommissioning.
-Does Ethanol have a lower collateral cost than, say, coal ? Probably. But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantity of ethanol ? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff) ? And what about the waste products of
+Does ethanol have a lower collateral cost than say, coal?  Probably.  But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantities of ethanol? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff)?  And what about the waste products of ethanol production?  New studies have also indicated that ethanol and biofuels lead to a worsening of global warming.  The increasing commodities prices of corn and soybean have lead to increased virgin acreage being converted to corn, soybean and other food crops.  (As other foods have gone up due to more acreage going to fuel crops and because feed grain prices have also risen.)
 Interestingly, ethanol and SPS can coexist rather nicely. We can grow fields of cereal crops beneath the SPS rectennas, at least where the soil and climate allow it.
@@ Line 153: / Line 153: @@
 ===Other Renewables (wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal)===
-Other Renewables (e.g wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal) only have the capacity to supply a tiny fraction of the global demand for energy.   The limitation is geography, there simply are very few sites in the world where generating systems of these types can be built.
+Other Renewables (e.g wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal) only have the capacity to supply a tiny fraction of the global demand for energy.   The limitation is geography, there simply are very few sites in the world where generating systems of these types can be built.  Though theoretically wind does have some potential above ground level.  By harnessing the wind at around 3,000 feet, essentially tethering a large wing to the ground, the geographic reach of wind grows dramatically, covering most of the United States.
 Ocean based windpower is one possibility, but that is dominated by the high cost of long distance power transmission, in which case SPS would be highly competititve.
@@ Line 159: / Line 159: @@
 ===Nuclear Fusion===
-For the past few decades humanity has been "ten years " away from achieving [[nuclear fusion]] breakthrough.  At this time there is no credible timeline for when nuclear fusion power plants will come on line.  So until then, nuclear fusion is not a credible competitor to solar power satellites.  Nevertheless, many country are pouring billions of dollars and euros annually into nuclear fusion research, but SPS R&D is receciving no funding at all, except via tiny discretionary accounts.
+For the past few decades humanity has been "ten years " away from achieving [[nuclear fusion]] breakthrough.  At this time there is no credible timeline for when nuclear fusion power plants will come on line.  So until then, nuclear fusion is not a credible competitor to solar power satellites.  Nevertheless, many countries are pouring billions of dollars and euros annually into nuclear fusion research, but SPS R&D is receciving no funding at all, except via tiny discretionary accounts.
 ==Conclusion==
@@ Line 165: / Line 165: @@
 If you include the cost of maintaining a military presence in the middle east, and the cost of global warming, then the cost of oil would probably quadruple.
-Nuclear power might appear cheaper than SSPS at first sight, until you factor in the cost of disposing of nuclear waste and decommissioning the reactors, then it suddenly becomes horrendously expensive and SSPS becomes attractive. But so far, nuclear decommissioning costs have been ignored, so that is a problem that future generations will have to figure out how to pay for.
+Nuclear power might appear cheaper than SPS at first sight, until you factor in the cost of disposing of nuclear waste, decommissioning the reactors and the insurance and banking rates for nuclear plants, then it suddenly becomes horrendously expensive and SPS becomes attractive.  But so far, nuclear decommissioning costs have been ignored, so that is a problem that future generations will have to figure out how to pay for.
-If society ever reaches the conclusion that fossil fuels and nuclear fuels are undesirable for the above reasons, then there is no remaining alternative to SPS for clean inexhaustible power on a global
+If society ever reaches the conclusion that fossil fuels and nuclear fuels are undesirable for the above reasons, then there is the remaining alternative of SPS for clean inexhaustible power on a global scale.
 When compared to space projects to date, SPS is very grand and ambitious, and much bigger than anything ever attempted in space before.

@@ Line 204: / Line 204: @@
 On 10/10/2007 The [[National Security Space Office]] of the US [[Department of Defense]], published an assessment report
-<ref>[http://spacesolarpower.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/final-sbsp-interim-assessment-release-01.pdf SpaceâBased Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security - Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study] - Report to the Director, National Security Space Office - Interim Assessment, Release 0.1, 10 October 2007</ref>.  The report was released at a press conference which simultaneously announced the formation of the [[Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy]] which intends to pursue the recommendations of the NSSO-Led Study.
+<ref>[http://spacesolarpower.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/final-sbsp-interim-assessment-release-01.pdf SpaceBased Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security - Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study] - Report to the Director, National Security Space Office - Interim Assessment, Release 0.1, 10 October 2007</ref>.  The report was released at a press conference which simultaneously announced the formation of the [[Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy]] which intends to pursue the recommendations of the NSSO-Led Study.
 ==References==

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:17, 24 February 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	~~lidarboolo~~
	The concept of Solar Power Satellites (SPS) was invented and first described, in November 1968 by Dr.[[Peter Glaser]] of [[Arthur D. Little Corporation]]		The concept of Solar Power Satellites (SPS) was invented and first described, in November 1968 by Dr.[[Peter Glaser]] of [[Arthur D. Little Corporation]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 ==Radio Frequency Issues==
-You are a loser
+The inverse square law does not apply to a focussed beam.
 The equation of beam spreading is a function of the transmitting antenna aperture versus the frequency.