In an aircraft hangar in Germany, scientists are firing lasers across the room in the hopes of bringing science fiction to life: beaming solar power directly from space.
According to a new report [PDF] by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), space-based solar technologies now in development in the lab will be technically feasible and ready for practical demonstration within the next decade or two.
What's more, based on existing technologies, space-based solar could be an economically viable alternative to today's commercial energy sources within the next 30 years, concludes the report published last month.
In fact, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, is "going forward on their [space-based solar] demo plan, with satellites scheduled to be up by the end of the next decade and a full pilot system by 2030," said Frank E. Little, of the Space Engineering Research Center at Texas A&M University.
According to the IAA report, such flight demonstrations "that validate [solar power satellite, or SPS] systems concepts to a high level of maturity . .Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， . appear to be essential in order to build confidence among engineers, policy makers, and the public and allow space solar power technology maturation and SPS deployment to proceed."
For now, though, the most frequently cited barrier to deploying—or even testing—many of the existing space-based solar platforms is the cost of launching the necessary equipment into orbit.The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors,Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet,
"There's a cost of building equipment, but also the cost associated with designing an experiment that's man-rated," Little said.
"If I put a device on the International Space Station [for example], because there are people on the ISS, the level of safety required increases the cost of the project. We looked at doing such a project and it's not cheap.
"You also have to pay for a ride [to get the experiment] from Earth to the station, and if you account for all costs, it's millions of dollars."
That's why some experts in the field argue that, when considering a return on investment, launching large-scale space solar operations might not be the best place to start.
"Some of the initial aims of this work haven't been to look at replacing all existing energy supplies," said Stephen Sweeney of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, who's leading the laser experiments in Germany.
"It's a case of how to deliver energy somewhere where you most need it, such as disaster areas and military sites."
The core idea of space-based solar has been in development since the 1970s: Place solar panels on a satellite, beam the collected energy to a receiver on Earth, and convert the beam to electricity.
Collecting sunlight in the vacuum of space means that the solar panels can harvest our star's intense energy without losses due to atmospheric absorption.
A satellite in geosynchronous orbit can be exposed to sunlight around the clock with no interruptions due to cloud cover. And from orbital heights, the power stream can be redirected quickly to places with the greatest need.
With funding from the European aerospace group EADS-Astrium, Sweeney's team has been studying the best way to beam power from a solar-collecting satellite to the ground. So far, the group favors a narrowly focused laser in infrared wavelengths.
"It's still an ongoing experiment," Sweeney said. "We're using an aircraft hangar where we can fire the laser across the building and put photovoltaics [PV] on the other side, then we can look at things that influence power transfer over that kind of a distance."
Similar experiments have been done before with microwave transmission, including a 2008 experiment that successfully beamed 20 watts of solar energy from a mountaintop in Maui to receivers on the Big Island of Hawaii—92 miles (148 kilometers) away.
Microwaves at frequencies up to about 10 gigahertz can move through Earth's thick atmosphere with little absorption even when it's raining, allowing most of the power to travel from the solar collector to the receiver.
But microwaves tend to spread out as they travel, so the farther the waves go, the larger the receiver must be to capture the energy being beamed.
Most space-based solar projects call for satellites in orbit about 21,750 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface. At that height, a microwave receiver on Earth would need to cover hundreds of square miles.
Instead,ceramic magic cube for the medical, Sweeney's team decided to "pick a wavelength that we know will make it through the atmosphere without being absorbed . . . [but that's also] a narrow beam, which means you have a particular point on Earth where you can target energy delivery."
Hence their use of an infrared laser in a wavelength that's eye-safe and that wouldn't cause skin damage, because the rays wouldn't be absorbed by epidermis.
With the narrow laser beam, the receiver on the ground would need to be only about 80 or 90 feet (24 to 27 meters) across, Sweeney said.
A receiver could then be made with PV cells imprinted on thin films to create small foldable or rollable systems that could be deployed easily even in hard-to-reach locations such as military outposts and disaster zones.
"Think of it like a PV cloth," said Don Flournoy, a telecommunications professor at Ohio University who has been studying use of space-based solar for disaster relief.
"They have these blankets that can lay over a house or string between trees that have PV cells woven in. It's sufficiently light that it could be transported and sturdy enough that it could be stretched out" to become a receiver for power beams from space.
The satellite could start beaming power as soon as the receiver is in place—likely a much faster process than sending generators, fuel, and other heavy cargo over large distances into areas with limited transportation infrastructure.
According to a new report [PDF] by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), space-based solar technologies now in development in the lab will be technically feasible and ready for practical demonstration within the next decade or two.
What's more, based on existing technologies, space-based solar could be an economically viable alternative to today's commercial energy sources within the next 30 years, concludes the report published last month.
In fact, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, is "going forward on their [space-based solar] demo plan, with satellites scheduled to be up by the end of the next decade and a full pilot system by 2030," said Frank E. Little, of the Space Engineering Research Center at Texas A&M University.
According to the IAA report, such flight demonstrations "that validate [solar power satellite, or SPS] systems concepts to a high level of maturity . .Boddingtons Technical Plastics provide a complete plastic injection moulding service including design， . appear to be essential in order to build confidence among engineers, policy makers, and the public and allow space solar power technology maturation and SPS deployment to proceed."
For now, though, the most frequently cited barrier to deploying—or even testing—many of the existing space-based solar platforms is the cost of launching the necessary equipment into orbit.The application can provide Ceramic tile to visitors,Polycore oil paintings for sale are manufactured as a single sheet,
"There's a cost of building equipment, but also the cost associated with designing an experiment that's man-rated," Little said.
"If I put a device on the International Space Station [for example], because there are people on the ISS, the level of safety required increases the cost of the project. We looked at doing such a project and it's not cheap.
"You also have to pay for a ride [to get the experiment] from Earth to the station, and if you account for all costs, it's millions of dollars."
That's why some experts in the field argue that, when considering a return on investment, launching large-scale space solar operations might not be the best place to start.
"Some of the initial aims of this work haven't been to look at replacing all existing energy supplies," said Stephen Sweeney of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, who's leading the laser experiments in Germany.
"It's a case of how to deliver energy somewhere where you most need it, such as disaster areas and military sites."
The core idea of space-based solar has been in development since the 1970s: Place solar panels on a satellite, beam the collected energy to a receiver on Earth, and convert the beam to electricity.
Collecting sunlight in the vacuum of space means that the solar panels can harvest our star's intense energy without losses due to atmospheric absorption.
A satellite in geosynchronous orbit can be exposed to sunlight around the clock with no interruptions due to cloud cover. And from orbital heights, the power stream can be redirected quickly to places with the greatest need.
With funding from the European aerospace group EADS-Astrium, Sweeney's team has been studying the best way to beam power from a solar-collecting satellite to the ground. So far, the group favors a narrowly focused laser in infrared wavelengths.
"It's still an ongoing experiment," Sweeney said. "We're using an aircraft hangar where we can fire the laser across the building and put photovoltaics [PV] on the other side, then we can look at things that influence power transfer over that kind of a distance."
Similar experiments have been done before with microwave transmission, including a 2008 experiment that successfully beamed 20 watts of solar energy from a mountaintop in Maui to receivers on the Big Island of Hawaii—92 miles (148 kilometers) away.
Microwaves at frequencies up to about 10 gigahertz can move through Earth's thick atmosphere with little absorption even when it's raining, allowing most of the power to travel from the solar collector to the receiver.
But microwaves tend to spread out as they travel, so the farther the waves go, the larger the receiver must be to capture the energy being beamed.
Most space-based solar projects call for satellites in orbit about 21,750 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface. At that height, a microwave receiver on Earth would need to cover hundreds of square miles.
Instead,ceramic magic cube for the medical, Sweeney's team decided to "pick a wavelength that we know will make it through the atmosphere without being absorbed . . . [but that's also] a narrow beam, which means you have a particular point on Earth where you can target energy delivery."
Hence their use of an infrared laser in a wavelength that's eye-safe and that wouldn't cause skin damage, because the rays wouldn't be absorbed by epidermis.
With the narrow laser beam, the receiver on the ground would need to be only about 80 or 90 feet (24 to 27 meters) across, Sweeney said.
A receiver could then be made with PV cells imprinted on thin films to create small foldable or rollable systems that could be deployed easily even in hard-to-reach locations such as military outposts and disaster zones.
"Think of it like a PV cloth," said Don Flournoy, a telecommunications professor at Ohio University who has been studying use of space-based solar for disaster relief.
"They have these blankets that can lay over a house or string between trees that have PV cells woven in. It's sufficiently light that it could be transported and sturdy enough that it could be stretched out" to become a receiver for power beams from space.
The satellite could start beaming power as soon as the receiver is in place—likely a much faster process than sending generators, fuel, and other heavy cargo over large distances into areas with limited transportation infrastructure.
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