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.. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 5th 09, 09:47 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Brian Gaff
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Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security

Would this not fry anything flying through the beam and be almost impossible
to focus due to the turbulence in the beam?
Also you would need some form of high orbit capable shuttle to service these
huge orbiting devices.
Brian

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"Jonathan" wrote in message
...

Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
Report to the Director, National Security Space Office
10 October 2007


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Consistent with the US National Security Strategy, energy
and environmental security are not just problems for America,
they are critical challenges for the entire world. Expanding human
populations and declining natural resources are potential sources
of local and strategic conflict in the 21st Century, and many
see energy scarcity as the foremost threat to national security.
Conflict prevention is of particular interest to security-providing
institutions such as the U.S. Department of Defense which has
elevated energy and environmental security as priority issues with
a mandate to proactively find and create solutions that ensure U.S.
and partner strategic security is preserved.

The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems
is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include
revisiting a concept called Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) first
invented in the United States almost 40 years ago. The basic idea is
very straightforward: place very large solar arrays into continuously
and intensely sunlit Earth orbit (1,366 watts/m2) , collect gigawatts
of electrical energy, electromagnetically beam it to Earth, and receive it
on the surface for use either as baseload power via direct connection
to the existing electrical grid, conversion into manufactured synthetic
hydrocarbon fuels, or as low-intensity broadcast power beamed directly
to consumers.

A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences
enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy
contained
within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/...power_main.htm








  #3  
Old June 6th 09, 02:58 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Brian Gaff
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Posts: 2,312
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security

I am not interesting in your bottom posting convention. I am blind and
prefer top posting to read. The sad fact is that most who bottom post never
edit the quoted docs and as one can rad the preceding messages, top posting
allows you to get at the guts of the reply without having to manually
fiddle with cursor down and listen to endless greater thans in the speech
synth. If you can be pedantic about this, then so can I. My view is as valid
as yours and of course so is my arrogance..
grin..

Thanks for the limited info on beam density, so why is it so and how do you
retrieve a useful amount of power from a a diverse beam without a huge
connection of receivers? If you are using land to this extent then why not
build you arrays on the ground on two sides of the globe, use dc
transmission lines to send the stuff where you want it.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...
"Brian Gaff" wrote:

:So, care to share why you would not fry things or get turbulence? Would
you
:split it over lots of beams or what?

The beam power density for SPS is low because the beam is quite large.


Care to learn to post properly? Your posting is broken two ways.

1) It is top posted.

2) Your top posting ends with the .sig break line ("-- "), which means
that anyone replying to you with a decent newsreader will
automatically snip off everything that has gone before unless they
take special steps to prevent it.

:Brian
:
:--
:Brian Gaff -

:Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
:in the display name may be lost.
:Blind user, so no pictures please!
:"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
.. .
: "Brian Gaff" wrote:
:
: :Would this not fry anything flying through the beam
:
: No.
:
: :and be almost impossible to focus due to the turbulence in the beam?
:
: Not a problem.
:
: :Also you would need some form of high orbit capable shuttle to service
: these
: :huge orbiting devices.
:
: Yes, you would need the capability to service them, but you need the
: capability to build them up there in the first place, so servicing
: them is easy coming from that.
:
: --
: "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to
: live in the real world."
: -- Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden
:



  #4  
Old June 6th 09, 07:12 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Damien Valentine
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Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for StrategicSecurity

So far as I know, you would need "a huge connection of recievers".
The most detailed SPS proposals stipulate an array of dipole antennae,
several kilometers wide.
  #5  
Old June 6th 09, 09:53 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for StrategicSecurity



Brian Gaff wrote:

Without superconducting transmission cables, there's a limit to how far
the electricity can be sent, due to the electrical losses of the
transmission cables.
As of 1980, max range was 4,000 miles, although today's systems are
shorter than that.
Present systems us AC, not DC, power transmission.
Even if you were to string superconducting cables along the sea bottom
between the continents, you would still have to deal with them failing
from time-to-time, as our present underwater communications cables do.


Pat
If you are using land to this extent then why not
build you arrays on the ground on two sides of the globe, use dc
transmission lines to send the stuff where you want it.

Brian


  #6  
Old June 6th 09, 11:11 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)
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Posts: 2,865
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security

Actually there's a move to DC for very long power transmission these days.


"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
news


Brian Gaff wrote:

Without superconducting transmission cables, there's a limit to how far
the electricity can be sent, due to the electrical losses of the
transmission cables.
As of 1980, max range was 4,000 miles, although today's systems are
shorter than that.
Present systems us AC, not DC, power transmission.
Even if you were to string superconducting cables along the sea bottom
between the continents, you would still have to deal with them failing
from time-to-time, as our present underwater communications cables do.



  #7  
Old June 7th 09, 12:26 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Bob Haller
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Posts: 3,197
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for StrategicSecurity

On Jun 6, 6:11�pm, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote:
Actually there's a move to DC for very long power transmission these days..

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message


\please tell more about this, how is DC better?
  #8  
Old June 7th 09, 01:33 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Jonathan
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Posts: 215
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security


Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
Report to the Director, National Security Space Office
10 October 2007


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Consistent with the US National Security Strategy, energy
and environmental security are not just problems for America,
they are critical challenges for the entire world. Expanding human
populations and declining natural resources are potential sources
of local and strategic conflict in the 21st Century, and many
see energy scarcity as the foremost threat to national security.
Conflict prevention is of particular interest to security-providing
institutions such as the U.S. Department of Defense which has
elevated energy and environmental security as priority issues with
a mandate to proactively find and create solutions that ensure U.S.
and partner strategic security is preserved.

The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems
is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include
revisiting a concept called Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) first
invented in the United States almost 40 years ago. The basic idea is
very straightforward: place very large solar arrays into continuously
and intensely sunlit Earth orbit (1,366 watts/m2) , collect gigawatts
of electrical energy, electromagnetically beam it to Earth, and receive it
on the surface for use either as baseload power via direct connection
to the existing electrical grid, conversion into manufactured synthetic
hydrocarbon fuels, or as low-intensity broadcast power beamed directly
to consumers.

A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences
enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained
within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/...power_main.htm






  #9  
Old June 7th 09, 05:50 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Pat Flannery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,465
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for StrategicSecurity



Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:

It would be good for both minimal total national power use per
generating capacity by being able to deal with heavy demand in specific
areas (say, like with a heat wave in a major metropolitan area
increasing air conditioner usage) and if cross-linked well could prevent
the threat of a wide area suffering a major power outages like those
that have occurred in the past. President Obama spoke of "digital
electrical power" being a goal of his presidency...in that scenario, a
loss of enough electrical power generation to meet demand results in
non-critical items being shut down temporally, while critical systems
continue to operate at full capacity - rather than a brown or black-out
of the whole area.
In a power usage spike, things like refrigerators and electric water
heaters would get shut down temporally via sending coded signals through
the electrical supply that powers them.
BTW, one of the historic causes of underwater communication cable breaks
has been Sperm Whales getting wrapped up in them and snapping the cable
as they struggle to free themselves of it before they drown.
This is apparently linked to their hypothesized feeding method of
skimming a few feet over the surface of the continental shelf while
letting their lower jaw run along the surface of the ooze trying to
scoop up prey...say a hiding giant squid that has detected their sonar
signals and headed for the bottom, or - somewhat surprisingly - crabs or
lobsters that are crawling along the bottom, which also form part of
their diet.
Anyway, once the cable goes into their mouth the males can be in real
trouble*, as their backward-curving teeth can get it stuck, and they may
not be able to release it:
http://www.uphaa.com/uploads/268/spe...-sculpture.jpg

* Males have teeth only in the lower jaw. Females have no teeth in
either jaw, IIRC.

Pat

Actually there's a move to DC for very long power transmission these
days.


  #10  
Old June 11th 09, 05:00 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.shuttle,sci.space.history,alt.military
Kevin Willoughby
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Posts: 220
Default .. NSSO...Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for StrategicSecurity

Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
Actually there's a move to DC for very long power transmission these days.


Details, please. I'd like to learn more about this.
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

It doesn't take many trips in Air Force One
to spoil you. -- Ronald Reagan
 




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