Japan ground-testing space-based solar power technology

[bananas]

These initial tests won't be using satellites, they will be done on the ground.
They are aiming for a small satellite test around 2016 and a full-scale system around 2025.
The article describes the Solarbird project, where a flock of 40 satellites would produce 1 GW of electricity.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T110122002679.htm

Space-based solar power set for 1st test
The Yomiuri Shimbun

A team of scientists from several organizations will begin tests this spring on a space-based power generation technology using satellites, it was learned Saturday.

The technology would start by generating electricity from sunlight in space, convert the power into microwaves and then send it to Earth, the team said. The planned test will attempt to convert a strong electric current into microwaves and transmit them 10 meters away in a simulated outer space environment at Kyoto University.

The group comprises scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., IHI Corp. and Kyoto University.

A successful test would likely accelerate the goal of putting a space-based power generation system into practical use by 2025.

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(Jan. 23, 2011)

[txlibdem]

1. So cool!

Space Based Solar Power has to be a big part of the solution for our future power needs.

[caraher]

2. I'm not so sure

You have to look at the environmental impact of launching the satellites. Back in the '70s when the idea first came up, this was a way to sell large permanent space settlements - the argument was that if you just established a means of mining the Moon and/or asteroids for resources, you could build your space-based solar power system without the need for thousands of launches just to put the parts in space. At the same time, there were proposals just to launch everything from Earth, and there were serious concerns about what that level of rocket launch activity would do to the atmosphere (I think at the time the chief worry was the ozone layer).

Now if we had some slick alternative means of getting into orbit, the picture changes...

[originalpckelly]

3. Why do that when you could use high altitude airships?

Put those babies up there above the weather, they won't be batted around, they'd use the same wireless energy transfer, and you can service them easier. The only main problem with that idea is that helium liftgas is a fossil resource, but hydrogen isn't. Make it unmanned, and it would be safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_altitude_airship

[LongTomH]

4. Another example of "Invented Here - Sold There!"

The idea of space-based solar power was the brainchild of Dr. Peter Glaser in 1968. The U.S. studied the idea in the 1970s; but, didn't follow through after 1980 (There's a long story there gang, and I'll deal with it at length sometime.). Japan, Russia and Europe have all spent time studying the idea. Japan originally wanted a Solar Power Satellite (SPS) in orbit by 2000; obviously the target date has slipped.

Caraher is right about the prohibitive cost and environmental impact of launching materials from the surface of the Earth. There are three ways of getting around this:

1) Using lunar or asteroid materials, as Gerard K. O'Neill proposed. By the way Caraher, the large space settlements are not necessary to use lunar or asteroid materials, most of the work done by O'Neill and The Space Studies Institute since the early 80's has been directed at bringing down the cost of space manufacturing by 'bootstrapping,' i.e. starting with a small, most automated space factory and expanding your facility with mostly space-based materials.

Some thoughts on this: When I read that the Obama space plan was looking at multiple targets for manned exploration, including asteroids, I went hmmmm! There was a debate in the pro-space movement, including the old L-5 Society about the advantages of lunar vs. asteroid materials. I wonder if someone in the administration is thinking about asteroids as a resource.

2) The use of laser or other beamed power propulsion to launch bulk materials for SPS construction, an idea that's been studied since the early 70's.

3) Space Elevators: The concept described by Russian Yuri Artsutanov in 1960 and featured in Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains of Paradise and The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. The discovery of carbon nanotubes (buckytubes, buckminsterfullerenes) in 1990 put the concept into the realm of possibility.

NASA has put some money into the idea and asked for idea from the private sector. NASA even sponsored a series of Space Elevator Games in which teams competed to see who could build a robot, beamed power climber to climb a 1-KM cable suspended from a helicopter. Kansas City even had its own team: The Kansas City Space Pirates, until they had to drop out when their laser provider withdrew.

For more information on space elevators go to The Spaceward Foundation website. They have a YouTube channel with videos of past competitions and some videos explaining the space elevator concept.

So, some combination of space resources and/or beamed power propulsion and/or space elevators will make solar power satellites feasible. The bad news is, there isn't any serious commitment to the concept in the United States at present, so it's more likely that Japan or China will put up the first SPS.

I promise to do a longer post on the themes I touched on today. Right now, I need to get ready for a State of the Union Watch Party tonight.