Engineers would have to wirelessly transmit gigawatts of energy safely and reliably from space.
By Pallab Ghosh
Space chiefs are investigating whether electricity could be beamed wirelessly from orbit into millions of homes. The eventual aim is to have giant satellites in orbit, each able to generate the same amount of electricity as a power station.
While several organizations and other space agencies have looked into the idea, the so-called Solaris initiative would be the first to lay the ground for a practical plan to develop a space-based renewable energy generation system.
The program is one of a number of proposals being considered by ministers at Esa’s triennial council, which will decide the budget for the next phase of the space agency’s plans for space exploration, environmental monitoring and communications.
Josef Aschbacher, who is Esa’s director general, told BBC News that he believed that solar power from space could be of “enormous”’ help to address future energy shortages.
Satellites with solar panels would need to be around 1.7km long – more than double the size of the world’s tallest building and an order of magnitude bigger than the current largest structure in space, which is the International Space Station, measuring 110m.
The Sun’s energy can be collected much more efficiently in space because there is neither night nor clouds. The idea has been around for more than 50 years, but it has been too difficult and too expensive to implement, until maybe now.
The game-changer has been the plummeting cost of launches, thanks to reusable rockets and other innovations developed by the private sector. But there have also been advances in robotic construction in space and the development of technology to wirelessly beam electricity from space to Earth.
Referenced story with pictures and captions:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62982113?
AR #94
Solar Catastrophe
by Robert Schoch
