"Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" paper

For any of you with an interest in Solar Power Satellite (SPS, or SSPS)
concepts, I finally received NASA Technical Memorandum copies of my
papers "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets
for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress. (actually,
they arrived in February, but I was out of town until now). It's NASA
TM-2004-212743

If anybody wants a copy, let me know and I'll drop one in the mail.

Geoffrey A. Landis wrote:
For any of you with an interest in Solar Power Satellite (SPS, or SSPS)
concepts, I finally received NASA Technical Memorandum copies of my
papers "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets
for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress... NASA
TM-2004-212743

Or, for those who prefer electrons, I realized it's available on the
Glenn server as a PDF file: http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/
browse.pl?2004/TM-2004-212743.html


--
Geoffrey A. Landis
http://www.sff.net/people/geoffrey.landis

Geoffrey A. Landis wrote:
For any of you with an interest in Solar Power Satellite (SPS, or SSPS)
concepts, I finally received NASA Technical Memorandum copies of my
papers "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets
for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress. (actually,
they arrived in February, but I was out of town until now). It's NASA
TM-2004-212743

If anybody wants a copy, let me know and I'll drop one in the mail.


I'd like copies. Spacing out my e-mail, hoping to thwart spam-bots:

h o p d @ c u n e w s . i n f o

Hope you will put these papers on the web as you have some of your other
papers.

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

If anybody wants a copy, let me know and I'll drop one in the mail.



Put me on the list, please.

GEA

I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.


"Geoffrey A. Landis"
wrote in message ...
For any of you with an interest in Solar Power Satellite (SPS, or SSPS)
concepts, I finally received NASA Technical Memorandum copies of my
papers "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets
for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress. (actually,
they arrived in February, but I was out of town until now). It's NASA
TM-2004-212743

If anybody wants a copy, let me know and I'll drop one in the mail.

Robert Lee wrote:
I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.

This is going to be as contraversial as the Drake equation.
There are so many possible variables.
What do you pick for launch cost?
Is it $6000/Kg, or $30/Kg launched by some sort of tether.
Are you using near-term 200W/Kg solar panels, or are you assuming
thin-film manufacturing breakthroughs, solar-dynamic, or...

What is the size of the recieving arrays, how close are they
together, how big are they, can you use the land under them, do you
need to keep aeroplanes out, ......

All of these are variables.
It's quite easy to generate numbers that vary by a factor of at least
a thousand.

"Robert Lee" wrote in message .. .
I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.


Over what timeframe?

"Robert Lee" wrote in message .. .
I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.


Good question, because the price of oil is artificially low right now,
even at $40/barrel.

First, could somebody please compute a "realistic" price for oil,
which includes the following factors:

- cost of military to assure access to oil supplies

- economic cost of vast balance of trade deficit

If we generalize to all fossil fuels, including coal as well as oil,
then there are other hidden costs:

- cost of Mercury pollution to seafood

- future cost of introducing emission controls for Mercury, Sulphur
et al (presently blocked by the polluters)

- healthcare cost and reduced life expectancy due to particulate air
pollution and chemical air pollution

- future cost of proposed CO2 remediation systems (e.g. underground
CO2 storage and intercontinental network of pipelines)

- future collateral cost of global warming

Those are some of the biggies.

I have never seen anybody present a holistic per barrel cost for oil.
It is difficult for SPS to compete against the present phony price
structure of fossil fuels whose prices are kept artificially low, and
real costs hidden.

"Charles F. Radley" wrote:

"Robert Lee" wrote in message .. .
I was wondering if you worked out how high the price of oil has to be in
order for an SPS project to be profitable.


Good question, because the price of oil is artificially low right now,
even at $40/barrel.

First, could somebody please compute a "realistic" price for oil,
which includes the following factors:

- cost of military to assure access to oil supplies

- economic cost of vast balance of trade deficit

If we generalize to all fossil fuels, including coal as well as oil,
then there are other hidden costs:

- cost of Mercury pollution to seafood

- future cost of introducing emission controls for Mercury, Sulphur
et al (presently blocked by the polluters)

- healthcare cost and reduced life expectancy due to particulate air
pollution and chemical air pollution

- future cost of proposed CO2 remediation systems (e.g. underground
CO2 storage and intercontinental network of pipelines)

- future collateral cost of global warming

Those are some of the biggies.

I have never seen anybody present a holistic per barrel cost for oil.
It is difficult for SPS to compete against the present phony price
structure of fossil fuels whose prices are kept artificially low, and
real costs hidden.

You could look at http://www.opec.org/NewsInfo/WhoGetsWhat/2001.pdf .
Some countries demand more per barrel from their captive customers
than others.

Presumably the countries that artificially raise the cost
of petroleum and natural gas (the latter of which that PDF doesn't
address) by closest to the right amount
are the ones that most successfully deal with the externalities
you mention, and the ones that are most desired as new homes by
migrants.

Those countries that raise it too much presumably induce
pathological behaviour in their tax-funded classes,
such as slipping money to antinuclear groups in a gesture
that is perhaps seen by those doing it as public-spirited,
but is in fact self-interested.


--- Graham Cowan
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/Paper_for_11th_CHC.doc --
fireproof fuel, real-car range, no emissions

(Charles F. Radley) wrote:
I have never seen anybody present a holistic per barrel cost for oil.

Mostly because such a 'cost' is a philosophical designation, not an
accounting one. When the eco-philosophers climb out of their ivory
towers and generate a reasonable theory and method for generating such
a cost, as opposed to generating massive quantities of hot air, you'll
see one.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.