Billion Year Plan

Newt Gets it Right on Space

2012-01-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

NASA looking at LENR

2012-01-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html

The Failure of Durban

2011-12-11T10:03:00.000-05:00

New frontiers of physics? Possible discovery of the Higgs Boson?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=higgs-lhc&print=true

An Earth-like exo-planet (Kepler 22b) discovered and top target for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57338719-1/kepler-22-b-a-top-target-in-restarted-seti-alien-search/

Excellent Counterpoint to the Limits of Growth by Dennis Wingo:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/10/the-true-failure-of-durban/#more-52789

The True Failure of Durban

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Anthony Watts

Guest post by Dennis Ray Wingo

First I want to say thanks to Anthony for providing this forum for the discussion of climate in a different sense, that is to focus on Durban and what this conference means from the wider perspective of the direction of our global civilization.

When I was young and beginning in the world of technology I complained to my mentor, my company’s regional manager, about a bad performance review delivered to me by a boss who I and he thought was incompetent. His response was to say that “a performance review can be used as a tool or as a bludgeon”. The same thing is true about CO2 and its role on the global stage as providing a tool whereby the technocrats of the UN and its NGO’s seek to reorganize our planetary civilization In keeping with their desired future.

The fear of the negative consequences of the emission of CO2 is being used as a tool to bludgeon the developed world into economic and political suicide. We in the west are told that we must commit this suicide because we must commit to a “Fair and equitable allocation of the atmospheric space, taking into account the criteria of historic climate debt and population;” [bullet 33g of the FCCC/AWGLCA/2011/CRP.39 document]. We are told that the only just and equitable way to do this is to transfer large sums of money to the Non-Annex 1 world and that we must have peak CO2 emissions in Annex 1 (western civilization) immediately [bullet 33d, bullet 32].

There are two critical assumptions that underpin the entire Durban conference as well as previous efforts; the first assumption is that we live in a limited world and that this wealth transfer and the immediate cessation of CO2 emissions is the only possible path toward a “sustainable” future. The second is that technology cannot solve the problem but politics can. What are these assumptions built upon and are they valid? Is this the only path forward? Are we destined to leave our global posterity in a state of perpetual semi-poverty? Human nature rebels against this doom and gloom view of the future, and with good reason.

The Assumptions

I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary-General, that the Members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion, and to supply the required momentum to development efforts. If such a global partnership is not forged within the next decade, then I very much fear that the problems that I have mentioned will have reached staggering proportions that they will be beyond our capacity to control.

Who said this? This statement could have very well have been the preamble to the Durban conference but it actually was uttered by UN Secretary General U Thant in 1969 and is included as the introduction to the book, Limits to Growth. The book “Limits to Growth” (LTG) is the touchstone of the environmental movement as well as the ultimate source of the two underpinning assumptions of the Durban conference.

The Limited Earth

The first assumption that the Earth is all we have and that our resources are limited to only what we have here. This is a patently false assumption. In 2005 I was invited to contribute a chapter to a book on “Spacepower Theory” which was commissioned by the defense department as an extension of Clauswitz’s classic “Landpower Theory”, Alfred Mahan’s “Seapower Theory”, and General Billy Mitchell’s “Airpower Theory”. In my chapter on the “Economic Development of the Solar System as the Heart of a Spacepower Theory”, a word was coined and defined.

“geocentric” is defined as a mindset that sees spacepower and its application as focused primarily on actions, actors, and influences on earthly powers, the earth itself, and its nearby orbital environs. (available online at the NDU press here)

The underpinning assumption that the Earth and its resources constitutes all the wealth that exists for humans to access and use is by definition a geocentric mindset and has been falsified by the last three decades of NASA, ESA, and other nations scientific probes sent to the Moon and beyond. Just in the last few years we have discovered billions of tons of water on the Moon to support propulsion, trillions of tons of aluminum, titanium, iron, Uranium, thorium and other rare Earth metals along with Platinum Group Metals, Cobalt, nickel and iron derived from asteroid impacts. In the asteroid belt are untold riches of water, metals and other resources yet to be identified. Just a single small metal asteroid, 3554 Amun, has tens of trillions of dollars worth of metals, and an asteroid of the same type, 216 Cleopatra, has a billion trillion times more resources of the same type. We now know that Mars has extensive water resources and the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity, found in just a few kilometers of driving, enough metallic asteroid fragments to kick start industry on Mars. It is absurd to think that the geocentric mindset of LTG and today in Durban is correct.

No Faith In Technology

The supposed inability of technology to solve our current problems is the other key assumption of LTG and today in Durban. To anyone who understands history and technology this is absurd but here is what the authors of LTG say about technology;

Applying technology to the natural pressures that the environment exerts against any growth process has been so successful in the past that a whole culture has evolved around the principle of fighting against limits rather than learning to live with them. This culture has been reinforced by the apparent immensity of the earth and its resources and by the relative smallness of man and his activities….

(page 156, Limits to Growth)

… We have felt it necessary to dwell so long on an analysis of technology here because we have found that technological optimism is the most common and the most dangerous reaction to our findings from the world model. Technology can relieve the symptoms of a problem without affecting the underlying causes. Faith in technology as the ultimate solution to all fundamental problems can thus divert our attention from the most fundamental problem – the problem of growth in a finite system – and prevent us from taking effective action to solve it.

(Page 159, LTG)

If you think that this thought pattern is one of the 1970’s, here is what Al Gore said in his book, Earth in the Balance in 1992:

It is important, however, to remember that there is a great danger in seeing technology alone as the answer to the environmental crisis. In fact, the idea that new technology is the solution to all our problems is a central part of the faulty way of thinking that created the crisis in the first place.

Unless we come to a better understanding of both the potential and the danger of technology, the addition of more technological power simply ensures further degradation of the environment, and no matter what new technologies we discover, no matter how cleverly and efficiently we manage to get them into the hands of people throughout the world, the underlying crisis will worsen unless, at the same time, we redefine our relationship to the environment, stabilize human population, and use every possible means to bring the earth back into balance.

(Page 328, Earth in the Balance)

Technology and technological development, in the form of the industrial revolution (the faulty way of thinking according to Gore), has done more to lift mankind out of poverty than all of the political systems tried in the entire one hundred and seventy thousand year history of our species put together. It is amazing that this neo Luddite attitude could exist today, but it does, and as an example of how it influences the Durban conference, only 15% of the money from their massive wealth transfer would be applied to developing technology. That is less than their administrative overhead! At the end of the day, this a key divergence between the NGO’s and technocrats of the UN and those of us who see another way, one rooted in finding solutions to the problems that confront us today.

Developing an Alternative

Let us, for the sake of the hypothetical and to put us on the same page as the delegates in Durban, let us grant the following:

The increase in CO2 and other IR absorbing gasses in the atmosphere are bad and we must do something about it or suffer the secular apocalypse.
We apply the minimum financial resources of the $100 billion per year as set forth in Durban to the problem.

Let us set as the requirements the following as well:

Whatever solution is found, it must in the end result in a more prosperous world for all mankind.
Whatever solution is found, it must also preserve individual liberty and provide opportunity for the further advance of mankind.

Unfortunately the requirements of brevity in this forum preclude an advanced treatment of this but lets lay the groundwork and if the reader wants more it can be provided in the future.

Energy

The first area to attack is energy. At the end of the day, energy is the key to the future. Just think that if a megawatt of electrical power was as inexpensive as a kilowatt is today, how many things would be different. A trash compactor could atomize your trash and separate it into its basic constituents for recycling. You could easily create your own hydrogen at home for your fuel cell car. Mining on the Earth could extract metals from base rock with oxygen as the waste product.

Half of the $100 billion per year would be spent on a crash program to develop various fusion technologies, including advanced forms of the National Ignition Facility, Polywell Fusion, Thorium fission, and the “traditional” ITER type Tokomak fusion. Applying this much money to these energy technologies would do far more than all of the political world shaping of the wealth transfer of Durban. Providing advanced energy sources would do far more than solar panels or wind turbines to power a prosperous civilization. Both solar and wind are inherently low energy multiple technologies, meaning that the energy that you get out of either of these is only low multiples of the energy that it takes the make, install, and maintain them.

If we put the proper amount of resources into these energy technologies, then we would “solve” the CO2 problem as a side benefit and we could build a world energy grid that would do more than all the antipoverty programs in place today put together to improve life on Earth. In researching the history of the industrial revolution, human lifespan has been directly proportional to the amount of inexpensive energy available to us. human lifespans in the west went from 35 years of age in the year 1700 to almost 50 years of age at the peak of the age of coal in 1900. Today at the peak of the oil age that number has climbed to almost 80 years in Annex 1 countries. It is also in the advanced energy countries where population growth has dropped to replacement or even below. There is a direct correlation between wealth and population and it is far more fun to make everyone wealthy than to make everyone suffer in poverty as would be the ultimate result of Durban.

Space Resource Development

In just the past few years the Lunar Recon Orbiter, the LCROSS, and other missions have made a very preliminary map of the resources available on the surface of the Moon. It is inevitable that there are upside surprises waiting us there. Despite the problems of NASA in getting us back to the Moon, to the Moon is our first destination. Let us apply the other $50 billion a year to an effort to begin the industrialization of the Moon. In inflation adjusted terms, this is still only 40% of the budget spent per year at the peak of the Apollo program. If it is that important, then we can increase that budget to the full $100 billion a year (we are talking about building a sustainable global civilization) on a multi-pronged effort in this area.

This would not just be a NASA effort or a NASA, ESA, JAXA effort but an effort that would provide the means whereby private enterprise could contribute through their own efforts and funds. Tax relief, prizes, and other incentives. We begin with the industrialization of the Moon and the construction of a transportation infrastructure to allow humans to easily move about in the inner solar system. The resources of the Moon enable this. We move forward to build infrastructure in geosynch orbit that are many times larger than today, to enable communications and remote sensing infrastructure that would fundamentally transform our global society for the better.

These are not fantasies, these are not science fiction ideas, they are 100% doable today. The problem has been that the financial support has not been there, even considering the $18 billion dollar a year NASA. NASA is not designed to lead the economic development of the solar system, nor should it be, this is something that the American people and our fellows in western civilization are uniquely qualified to do. Dr. John Marburger, the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Bush administration had a marvelous speech on this subject at the Goddard symposium in 2006. In it he said:

The ultimate goal is not to impress others, or merely to explore our planetary system, but to use accessible space for the benefit of humankind. It is a goal that is not confined to a decade or a century. Nor is it confined to a single nearby destination, or to a fleeting dash to plant a flag. The idea is to begin preparing now for a future in which the material trapped in the Sun’s vicinity is available for incorporation into our way of life.

This is the alternative to the Durban failure that should be investigated and I submit that if we did this, our future would be far better in the year 2100 than even the most optimistic scenarios developed in any of these conferences that focus on how to split the existing pie up in a way that supports their political proclivities. We want to build a far bigger pie. Today the average welfare recipient in the United States lives a life style that Augustus Caesar or the greatest emperor of old China would think of as magic. Our goal should be to create a world in the year 2100 where the poor live a lifestyle that George Soros would envy.

Beyond Artificial Limits

For those of us who work in the space business and who develop new architectures for lunar development and beyond it seems absurd that these false assumptions should underpin serious global deliberations at crafting a better future for the citizens of our planetary civilization. This at the end of the day is my greatest objection to the role that climate scientists play in the arena of solutions to the “CO2 problem”. Whether or not you believe that CO2 is the secular apocalypse, one thing is certain, the people that are trained in the arcane science of climate proxies are inadequate in training and incompetent in execution of something as large as architecting a future for our civilization. We must open up the boundaries of the discussion to include energy development on the Earth and resource development off planet as serious and viable alternatives to plans such as the failed ones being drawn up in places like Durban.

There is a future out there, a glorious one, that while it may not solve all of our problems, it will certainly get us beyond these artificial limits to growth.

Three Space Solar Power Videos

2011-11-30T23:51:00.000-05:00

Mke Snead's New Video

The IAA Press Conference

The Georgia Tech Space Power Grid Idea

NASA inadequate for Planetary Defense

2011-11-23T22:30:00.000-05:00

From: http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/IndyBlog/archives/2011/11/14/extra-extra-in-other-news-online

After Charlie Bolden, the administrator of NASA, declared that deflecting a near-earth object (NEO), such as an asteroid or a comet, will be “what keeps the dinosaurs—we are the dinosaurs, by the way—from becoming extinct a second time,” he admitted that the space agency couldn’t afford to tackle that task, even if it wanted to. He explained that the annual federal allocation for “planetary defense” is $5.8 million, which represents a mere 0.03 percent of NASA’s budget and is barely adequate merely to locate NEOs and track their orbits. (The New Yorker)

From: http://www.voxbikol.com/article/quarter-mile-wide-asteroid-coming-close-earth

Quarter-mile-wide asteroid coming close to Earth

ARTICLE | NOVEMBER 5, 2011 - 8:23AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid bigger than anaircraft carrier will dart between the Earth and moon on Tuesday — the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years.

But scientists say not to worry. It won't hit.

"We're extremely confident, 100 percent confident, that this is not a threat," said the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program, Don Yeomans. "But it is an opportunity."

The asteroid named 2005 YU55 is being watched by ground antennas as it approaches from the direction of the sun. The last time it came within so-called shouting distance was 200 years ago.

Closest approach will occur at 6:28 p.m. EDT Tuesday when the asteroid passes within 202,000 miles of Earth. That's closer than the roughly 240,000 miles between the Earth and the moon.

The moon will be just under 150,000 miles from the asteroid at the time of closest approach.

Both the Earth and moon are safe — "this time," said Jay Melosh, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University.

If 2005 YU55 were to plow into the home planet, it would blast out a crater four miles across and 1,700 feet deep, according to Melosh's calculations. Think a magnitude-7 earthquake and 70-foot-high tsunami waves.

Scientists have been tracking the slowly spinning, spherical, dark-colored object since its discovery in 2005, and are positive it won't do any damage.

"We know the orbit of this object very well," Yeomans said.

The asteroid stretches a quarter-mile across. Smaller objects come close all the time, Yeomans noted, but nothing this big will have ventured so close since 1976. And nothing this large will again until 2028.

Radar observations from California and Puerto Rico will help scientists ascertain whether theasteroid is pockmarked with craters and holds any water-bearing minerals or even frozen water.

Amateur astronomers would need a 6-inch-or-bigger telescope and know exactly where to look to spot it.

Astronomers consider 2005 YU55 a C-type asteroid — one containing carbon-based materials. "It's not just a whirling rock like most of them," Yeomans said.

Such objects are believed to have brought carbon-based materials and water to the early Earth, planting the seeds for life. The discovery of water-bearing minerals or ice would support that theory, Yeomans said.

This is the type of asteroid that NASA would want to aim for, with astronauts, Yeomans said, especially if frozen water is found. Such asteroids could serve as watering holes and fueling stations for future explorers, he said.

An asteroid is actually on NASA's short list for destinations.

President Barack Obama wants astronauts headed to an asteroid and then Mars in the coming decades. That's why the 30-year space shuttle program ceased this summer — so NASA could have enough money to get cracking on these new destinations.

As for an actual strike by an asteroid this size, that's estimated to occur once every 100,000 years or so.

An asteroid named Apophis — estimated to be 885 feet across — will venture extremely close on April 13, 2029 — but will not strike. It has a remote chance of hitting Earth when it comes around again on April 13, 2036.

Scientists said information gleaned from 2005 YU55, as well as other asteroids, will prove useful if and when it becomes necessary to deflect an incoming Armageddon-style rock. (From Philstar.com)

Excellent Coverage of SBSP from Aviation Week!

2011-11-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

In Orbit

Space Solar Power Seen Profitable By 2040

Aviation Week & Space Technology Nov 21 , 2011 , p. 20

Frank Morring, Jr.

Printed headline: Closing The Case

Conventional wisdom typically holds that harvesting “free” energy from the Sun with giant collectors in space does not make financial sense, at least until Earth’s finite supplies of oil, coal and natural gas become so scarce that there’s no other choice. The conventionally wise usually suggest that it will make more economic sense to rely on wind power and ground-based solar cells for “green” renewable energy. But now a panel of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), an elite organization of scientists, engineers and other experts who collectively examine some of the big issues of space exploration, has concluded that space solar power (SSP) could start paying for itself in as little as a decade.
John Mankins, a leading SSP visionary, co-chaired the IAA panel with Nobuyuki Kaya of Japan’s Kobe University, where a lot of the technical ground for SSP already is being broken. They presented their findings at the National Press Club in Washington on Nov. 14, after unveiling them at the International Astronautical Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, last month. Examining various SSP approaches and four scenarios for the way global energy needs will influence the world economy, the IAA panel concluded that “premium niche markets” could support SSP profitably in the relative near term, particularly if some new approaches to assembling the big space-based collectors are followed. Technical hurdles that remain to be surmounted include thermal control, either with better spaceradiators or higher-temperature electronics. But the SSP idea is more attractive now that at any time since it first was conceived in the late 1960s.

“There has been general consensus in every study, both here and abroad, that space solar power is technically feasible, that there are no show-stoppers,” says Mark Hopkins, CEO of the National Space Society, which sponsored a panel discussion of the IAA report at the press club. “But this is the first major study which has come out and said there’s a good chance it can be economically viable.”
Mankins says the study examined three “promising” SSP concepts for positioning in geostationary orbit—a stabilized platform using solar arrays like those on the International Space Station to generate electricity converted to microwaves for transmission to large rectifying antennas (rectennas) on Earth; a modular approach linking solar arrays and lasers beaming down power in near-visible wavelengths, and a modular approach concentrating solar energy with large mirrors before converting it to microwaves.
The stabilized platform was studied in depth in 1979, Mankins says, and is no longer attractive because it is limited to about 100 kw without being “fundamentally rearchitectured.” The laser approach runs into efficiency issues in competition with other power-generation systems above 100 mw, according to the IAA, while the modular “sandwich” microwave architecture is the most promising because it is scalable.
“One of the things which appears very promising now is the idea that through these hypermodular architectures, that you can build fairly tractably, with tens of millions of dollars, a prototype of a module,” Mankins says. “And for a bit more money you can make a bunch of copies of those modules.”
The microwave approach will require more work on thermal control, Mankins said, and any large structure will require advances in on-orbit assembly, in-space propulsion and, ultimately, launch vehicles. But at least initially a 10-mw system costing $10 billion, of the type already considered by the Pentagon for supplying power to forward-deployed bases and disaster areas, probably could be launched with existing or planned vehicles like the Delta IV Heavy and Falcon 9 Heavy, respectively.
The IAA panel concluded that for the rest of the century, growing demand for electricity will call for many new sources of energy. Wind and terrestrial solar power will help, but unlike SSP are subject to local weather conditions. Space-generated power, by contrast, can be beamed to areas where weather is temporarily stilling windmills and blocking sunlight, Mankins says.
The IAA report does not assume that SSP will totally replace other sources of electricity, but finds it can gradually assume a larger role as the global population grows from 7 billion to twice that by century’s end. U.S. military strategists have long seen SSP as an alternative to the “energy wars” they fear as fossil fuel supplies dwindle, while development of SSP technology will place the nation or nations that control it in a strong position to shape geopolitics. Another benefit may come with the jobs generated by large-scale SSP production.
“If you think about the skill set that is necessary to build a system like Orbcomm or GPS, it’s that same kind of skill set, but a lot of them,” Mankins says. “At full scale by mid-century, space solarpower is like the automotive industry, meaning you have a very large and high-tech workforce and a set of infrastructure with factories building pieces of solar power satellites. The reasonable number [for SSP generating 100-200 gw] works out to millions of jobs.”

Near Earth Object Media/Risk Communications Experts Gather

2011-11-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

From: http://www.newswise.com/articles/near-earth-object-media-risk-communications-experts-gather

Newswise — An expert group of scientists, reporters, and risk management specialists have taken part in a Near Earth Object Media/Risk Communications workshop.

Output from these professionals is helping to draft a report for the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, the Working Group dedicated to organizing an approach that counters the potential threat posed by Near Earth Objects, or NEOs.

Specifically, that UN Working Group in its deliberations is appraising establishment of an Information, Analysis and Warning Network (IAWN).

The team of workshop participants included leading journalists and writers, hazard communication authorities, artists and NEO researchers. The invite-only setting for the meeting – held November 14-15 – was the University of Colorado, Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

This NEO Media/Risk Communications Workshop was convened by Secure World Foundation and the Association of Space Explorers.

Reach, teach, and motivate

Among issues discussed during the two-day workshop:

-- What are effective tools to empower audiences with a tangible outreach and education plan, one that fosters accurate and timely information about the possible effects of a potentially hazardous NEO and what actionable steps can they take?

-- How best to inform the public regarding NEOs and any Earth-threatening object in a way to avoid misinformation?

-- What steps can be taken to develop an outreach and education plan, one that offers accurate and timely information about the possible effects of a potentially hazardous NEO?

Counteract consequences

Secure World Foundation has a long-standing interest for maintaining a vigilant eye on NEOs, as well as the establishment of a Planetary Defense strategy.

The consequences stemming from a NEO plowing into the Earth depends on its size and trajectory. Damage could range from destruction of an area the size of a city, to creation of tsunamis, to far greater after-effects.

“Establishment of a Planetary Defense strategy includes a number of components, from finding potentially hazardous objects, predicting their future locations, and providing warning about future impacts with the Earth,” said Dr. Ray Williamson, Executive Director of Secure World Foundation.

Furthermore, a Planetary Defense strategy also includes missions to deflect impacting asteroids by changing their orbit, as well as disaster preparedness management and, in the event of a NEO strike, shaping a mitigation and recovery plan to counteract consequences.

Resources and contacts

The need for an IAWN had been identified in Asteroid Threats: A Call for a Global Response, a report prepared by an expert panel convened by the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) to assist the work of the UN COPUOS Action Team on Near-Earth Objects (AT-14), which was established in 2001.

That report is available here:

http://www.space-explorers.org/ATACGR.pdf

Additionally, you can review Executive Summary of the Workshop on a Near-Earth Object Information, Analysis, and Warning Network (IWAN) here:

http://swfound.org/media/15763/jan%202010
%20neo%20iawn%20workshop%20executive%20summary-final.pdf

For further information on Secure World Foundation and this week’s Near Earth Object Media/Risk Communications Working Group meeting, contact:

Dr. Ray Williamson, Executive Director
Secure World Foundation
Email: rwilliamson@swfound.org
Phone: 1-303-554-1560
Cell Phone: 1-303-501-0430

Leonard David, Senior Research Associate
Secure World Foundation
Email: ldavid@swfound.org
Phone: 1-303-554-1560

About Secure World Foundation

Secure World Foundation (SWF) is a private operating foundation dedicated to the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples.

SWF engages with academics, policy makers, scientists and advocates in the space and international affairs communities to support steps that strengthen global space sustainability. It promotes the development of cooperative and effective use of space for the protection of Earth’s environment and human security.

The Foundation acts as a research body, convener and facilitator to advocate for promoting key space security and other space related topics and to examine their influence on governance and international development.

Secure World Foundation is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, Belgium.

For access to the SWF website, please go to:
http://swfound.org/

NASA Administrator on Planetary Defense

2011-11-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=39082
When looking beyond near-Earth space and LEO, several missions and target destinations are viable. These include Earth's closest solar system neighbors: the Earth-Moon or Sun-Earth Lagrange points and cis-lunar space, NEAs, the Moon, the moons of Mars, and Mars. Each destination provides unique exploration and operational opportunities. Lunar circumnavigation and flights to Earth-Moon or Earth- Sun Lagrange points hold near-term promise as compelling test locations for the SLS, Orion MPCV, and other key emerging systems. Lagrange points are gravitationally stable regions created by the interaction of the gravity fields of any two large masses; an object placed at a Lagrange point will tend to stay in place for a long time. The Earth-Moon L1 and L2 Lagrange points could therefore be excellent "gateways" for a multitude of exciting exploration missions. The NEAs provide the opportunity to send humans beyond the solar orbit of Earth while holding compelling science and planetary defense knowledge-building potential. In addition to possible scientific prospects, missions to NEAs would afford astronauts the experience applicable to deeper-space missions that would eventually contribute to establishing a permanent human presence beyond Earth. There are a few asteroids which could be visited by the SLS and Orion MPCV in the timeframe under consideration. Additional NEA survey data will be required to identify and refine the catalog of potential targets.

Google Top News Story Status "Space Solar Power IAA " as of ~10:30 pm EST

2011-11-16T05:41:00.001-05:00

Full coverage

Orbital solar panels could resolve all power needs

The Daily Star - ‎3 hours ago‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the “economic uncertainties” of the development and demonstration ...

Solar satellite plan blasts fossil fuels with eco-laser

SlashGear - ‎3 hours ago‎

This project notes that the space solar power solution would be a long-term energy fix for Earth that would include a potential for “essentially zero” terrestrial environmental impact. The study's environmental impact bit is according to the National ...

Scientists Predict Giant Orbiting Power Plants CouldPower the Earth by 2041

Inhabitat - ‎4 hours ago‎

Solar power has been studied and tested for nearly 40 years, but only within the last few years have we seen innovations truly make leaps and bounds. Looking towards the future, scientists are now saying with the technology we ...

Tomorrow's energy will come from space based solarstations, no later than 2016

ZME Science - ‎6 hours ago‎

Space solar stations are not a new idea at all – they have been researched since the 1970; but as years pass, scientists understand more and more the numerous benefits this type of technology could bring – a true revolution in renewable energy. ...

Space-based solar power collectors possible in twenty years

Geek.com - ‎6 hours ago‎

It would also cut down on fossil fuel emissions since solar is “clean” energy. Critics of the study say that the IAA didn't do broad enough research, or an accurate cost analysis in its findings. They are afraid that the cost of development is still ...

Space Lasers! (for Clean Energy, Obviously)

CleanTechnica - ‎8 hours ago‎

Orbiting solar power stations have been a continuous source of debate for decades – someone always brings up the idea of power plants IN SPACE and it always gets shot down as being unfeasible. (What's not realistic about having energy beamed down from...

Enormous orbiting solar raygun power plants touted

NASA's former head of concepts John Mankins (now head of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions of California) is quoted as saying “solar power derived fromspace could play a tremendously important role in meeting the global need for energyduring ...

Giant orbiting power plants could harvest the sun'senergy to provide world's ...

Mail on Sunday - ‎9 hours ago‎

The study said government money would probably be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the 'economic uncertainties' of the development, it said. ...

Giant orbiting power plants could harvest the sun'senergy to provide world's ...

Daily Mail - ‎10 hours ago‎

Giant orbiting power plants could harvest the sun'senergy to provide world's ...

Daily Mail - ‎10 hours ago‎

Spaced based solar power stations of the future

The Economic Voice - ‎12 hours ago‎

This will be a 1 kilometre wide free floating Mylar mirror, which will focus the sun's rays onto a smaller mirror aimed at solar panels. They hope to have it in place by 2016. The Japanese also hope to have their version of a space based solar energy ...

Energy of the Future: Spaced Based Solar Stations

OilPrice.com - ‎13 hours ago‎

Space based solar power stations are not a new idea, in fact they have been researched since the 1970's. Back in 2009 the Californian state regulators granted approval to the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Solaren Corp. to start creating a solarbased ...

Orbital solar plants could power Earth

Mumbai Mirror - ‎14 hours ago‎

Space solar power station possible within three decades – IAA

EcoSeed - ‎15 hours ago‎

The International Academy of Astronautics has completed the first international study looking into whether collecting solar energy out in space is possible. While it found that the idea of a space solar power or SSP system is technically feasible ...

IAA says 'Yes We Can' to power plants in orbit

PhysOrg.com - ‎17 hours ago‎

The IAA's three-year, ten-nation study, as the first broadly based international assessment of collecting solar energy in space, is considered significant. The study was conducted from 2008 to 2010 and was under peer review. John Mankins, the former...

Could space lasers deliver clean energybreakthrough?

Environmental Expert (press release) - ‎22 hours ago‎

Orbiting solar power stations could meet much of the world's energy requirements within 30 years, according to a major new study to be released later today. The report from the International Academy of Astronautics, an advanced copy of which was ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

TODAYonline - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The concept, known as space solar power, is a potential long-term energy solution for Earth with "essentially zero" terrestrial environmental impact, according to the National Space Society, an advocacy group that was set to publicise the study at a ...

Exclusive: Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

ECNmag.com - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar plants could help solve Earth's energycrisis

Globe and Mail - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

Orbital solar power plants could meet Earth's energyneeds

msnbc.com - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Solar Power in Orbit

Energy and Capital - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

According to the report, which will be made public at a conference in Washington on Monday, the most effective way to obtain solar power would be in space. The report shows that within 30 years it could be possible to power the globe this way. ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Mother Nature Network - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbiting stations would harvest sun's energy

Vancouver Sun - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Space, solar power's next frontier?

SmartPlanet.com (blog) - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

Private companies have also latched onto the idea of space based solar power. Solaren Corp. struck a deal with Pacific Gas & Electric to begin supplying PG&E with celestial solar energy in 2016. Under IAA's proposal, satellites would be positioned in...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

DAWN.com - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

Could space lasers deliver clean energybreakthrough?

Business Green - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

According to Reuters, the paper provides little precise detail on how the technology could be deployed, nor on the estimated cost of new solar power stations, each of which would be several kilometres across. However, it does state that space solar ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

BusinessLIVE - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Harvesting sun's power in space 'feasible': study

Calgary Herald - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

"It is clear that solar power delivered from space could play a tremendously important role in meeting the global need for energy during the 21st century," according to the study led by John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran and the US space agency's ...

Harnessing the power of the sun

Independent Online - ‎Nov 14, 2011‎

Space solar power can solve energy crisis

Khaleej Times - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study was billed as the first broadly based international assessment of potential paths to collecting solar energy in space and delivering it to markets on Earth via wireless power transmission. The study said government pump-priming likely would ...

Space solar power touted for energy needs

ABC Online - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

Orbiting solar panels Harvesting the Sun's energy from space could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years, says an international scientific group. Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and ...

Giant solar space panels tipped to power cars, homes of future

Irish Independent - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

SCIENTISTS are working on a revolutionary plan to supply the world's energy needs by building solar power stations in space. Orbiting power plants capable of collectingsolar energy and beaming it to Earth will be "technically ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Bangladesh News 24 hours - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar plants 'can solve energy crisis'

Gulf Daily News - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

It said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the space solar powerconcept to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration phases and the time ...

Orbital Solar Power Plants Touted for Energy Needs

International Business Times - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Arab News - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

The News International - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Vision Insights and New Horizons - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Exclusive - Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

Reuters UK - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Khaleej Times - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

Exclusive: Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

Reuters UK - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Exclusive: Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

CNBC.com - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

EXCLUSIVE-Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

Reuters AlertNet - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Exclusive: Orbital solar power plants touted forenergy needs

Reuters India - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs

Kyiv Post - ‎Nov 13, 2011‎

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration ...

Outstanding Article from Reuters!

2011-11-15T06:21:00.000-05:00

One must ask the natural question: Now that this IAA study is out, how will the Congress and Executive Branch follow up?

Check out this outstanding exclusive from Reuters (I've highlighted an excerpt below):

Go to for the full article: http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre7ac0j1-us-space-energy-solar/

Exclusive: Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs
By Jim Wolf Posted 2011/11/13 at 8:16 am EST

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2011 (Reuters) — The sun's abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.

Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear "technically feasible" within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.

Such a project may be able to achieve economic viability in 30 years or less, it said, without laying out a road map or proposing a specific architecture.

"It is clear that solar power delivered from space could play a tremendously important role in meeting the global need for energy during the 21st century," according to the study led by John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran and the U.S. space agency's former head of concepts.

The academy is headed by Madhavan Nair, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. The study was billed as the first broadly based international assessment of potential paths to collecting solar energy in space and delivering it to markets on Earth via wireless power transmission.

The study said government pump-priming likely would be needed to get the concept, known as space solar power, to market. Private-sector funding is unlikely to proceed alone because of the "economic uncertainties" of the development and demonstration phases and the time lags, the study said.

Both governments and the private sector should fund research to pin down the economic viability of the concept, the study said, amid concerns about humankind's continuing reliance on finite fossil fuels that contribute to global pollution.

The study did not estimate a potential overall price tag for completing the project.

Space solar power is a potential long-term energy solution for Earth with "essentially zero" terrestrial environmental impact, according to the National Space Society, an advocacy group set to hold a news conference in Washington on Monday to publicize the academy's 248-page final report.

A copy of the study was obtained by Reuters ahead of its release.

TURN SUNLIGHT INTO ELECTRICITY

The idea is to put first one, then a few, and later scores of solar-powered satellites in geosynchronous orbit over the equator. Each as wide as several kilometers across (one kilometer equals 0.6 miles), the spacecraft would collect sunlight up to 24 hours a day, compared with half that, at most, for surface panels now used to turn sunlight into electricity.

The power would be converted to electricity on-board and sent to wherever it is needed on Earth by a large microwave-transmitting antenna or by lasers, then fed into a power grid.

Skeptics deem the concept a nonstarter, at least until the cost of putting a commercial power plant into orbit drops by a factor of 10 or more. Other hurdles include space debris, a lack of focused market studies and high development costs.

The study, conducted from 2008 to 2010 then subjected to peer review, found that the commercial case had substantially improved during the past decade, partly as a result of government incentives for nonpolluting "green" energy systems.

A pilot project to demonstrate the technology even as big as the 400-tonne International Space Station could go ahead using low-cost expendable launch vehicles being developed for other space markets, Mankins said in a telephone interview.

A moderate-scale demonstration would cost tens of billions of dollars less than previously projected as a result of not needing costly, reusable launch vehicles early on, said Mankins, president of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions LLC, a California consultancy.

"This was a really important finding," Mankins said, referring to a relatively modestly priced pilot project.

'IT'S A START'

His company has been awarded a NASA contract of a little less than $100,000 to pursue space-based solar power options -- small "but at least it's a start," Mankins said.

Ultimately, tens of billions of dollars would be needed to develop and deploy a sufficiently low-cost fleet of reusable, earth-to-orbit vehicles to launch full-scale commercial solar power satellites, the study group estimated.

The group said the necessary research and development work should be undertaken by countries and organizations in concert, including space agencies, companies, universities and nongovernmental organizations.

International interest in the concept has grown during the past decade, spurred in part by fears that in coming decades global production of petroleum and possibly other fossil fuels will peak and start to decline.

Adding to a quest for new energy sources are projected jumps in worldwide per capita demand for energy to fuel economic development and concern over the accumulation in Earth's atmosphere of fossil fuel-derived greenhouse gases.

The idea of harnessing solar power in space has been studied off and on for 40 years, including by the U.S. Energy Department and NASA.

U.S. and Indian business, policy and national security analysts in September called for a joint U.S.-Indian feasibility study on a cooperative program to develop space-based solar power with a goal of fielding a commercially viable capability within two decades.

The study group, co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank and Aspen Institute India, included former U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Naresh Chandra, a former Indian ambassador to the United States.

Colonel Michael Smith, the U.S. Air Force's chief futurist as director of the Center for Strategy and Technology at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, said the idea has the potential to send safe, clean electrical energy worldwide "if we can make it work."

"Isn't that what government and industry should be working to do?" he said in a telephone interview.

Jeff Peacock, who heads satellite-builder Boeing Co's ground-based solar cell product line, said in theory it could double the amount of solar power collected, compared with the Earth-bound technology equivalent.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

IAA Press Conference is Tomorrow!

2011-11-13T12:15:00.000-05:00

Preview at http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-limitless-power-source-for-the-indefinite-future

A limitless power source for the indefinite future

November 11, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Space solar power satellite, artist's impression (credit: SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc./Spaceworks Commercial)

On Monday, the National Space Society (NSS) will present findings from an eye-opening new report by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). You’re hearing about this here first. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of the NSS board of directors.)

Some background: By 2030–40, the projected annual electrical energy consumption will be a staggering 220 trillion kiloWatt hours, double the consumption in 2010 — and four times more by 2090–2100, according to theInternational Energy Agency and U.S. Department of Energy.

“Economic concerns have diverted attention from energy policy and limited the means of intervention,” the International Energy Agency reports in its 2011 World Energy Outlook. “Post-Fukushima, nuclear is facing uncertainty. MENA [Middle East and North Africa] turmoil raised questions about the region’s investment plans. Some key trends are pointing in worrying directions: CO2 emissions rebounded to a record high, energy efficiency of the global economy worsened for the 2nd straight year, and spending on oil imports is near record highs.”

Global energy demand increases in mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent) by one-third from 2010 to 2035, with China & India accounting for 50% of the growth (credit: International Energy Agency)

The space solar power solution

In 2002, Dr. Martin Hoffert, Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University, proposed a radical solution to what appears to be a serious coming energy shortfall (Science, 2002): space solar power (SSP) — collect energy from space and transmit it wirelessly anywhere in the world.

The basic concept, invented in the late 60s by Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little: a large platform, positioned in space in a high Earth orbit continuously collects and converts solar energy into electricity. This power is then used to drive a wireless power transmission system that transmits the solar energy to receivers on Earth. Because of its immunity to nighttime, to weather or to the changing seasons, the SPS concept. has the potential to achieve much greater energy efficiency than ground based solar power systems.

There are significant advantages to SSP compared to ground solar power, according to an NSS statement: solar energy in space is seven times greater per unit area than on the ground, and the collection of solar space energy is not disrupted by nightfall and inclement weather, avoiding the need for expensive energy storage. And it’s especially valuable for isolated areas of the world (parts of Africa and India, for example.)

SSP technically feasible in 10–20 years

However, so far, the SSP concept has lacked the needed in-depth technology, market, and economic assessment. (I’ve personally been skeptical.) But on Monday Nov. 14 at a press conference (open to the public) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the National Space Society will announce the findings of an impressive three-year, ten-nation study of space solar power by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), co-chaired by John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran who headed NASA’s study of space solar power in the 90s, and Prof. Nobuyuki Kaya, Vice Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University.

Its findings include:

Space solar power appears to be technically feasible within 10–20 years using technologies existing now in the laboratory;
It appears to be economically viable in the next 1–3 decades under several different scenarios for future energy markets, including potential government actions to mediate environment/climate change issues;
Low-cost Earth-to-orbit transportation systems appear to be technically feasible during the coming 20–30 years using technologies existing in the laboratory now;
Flight experiments are needed, and policy-related and regulatory issues must be resolved.

Occupy space

“The report gets across one very basic message: in the eyes of the leading experts on aerospace technology worldwide: harvesting solar power in space and transmitting it to earth is no longer science fiction,” says author Howard Bloom in a companion announcement by the Space Development Steering Committee. “It is sound, current-technology-based science fact. And it is a green energy option we can’t ignore.

“SSP produces no greenhouse gases. It offers a way out of the trap of climate change. It is supremely sustainable. It can make us a net energy exporter, a position the United States enjoyed until 1951. And, as a National Space Security Office report on space solar power points out, SSP is an energy source that can end our hemorrhage of cash to hostile oil nations and can save us from the trillion dollar budgets of energy wars. No wonder a recent report from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute concluded that ‘A successful effort,’ in space solar power ‘could provide unprecedented levels of clean and renewable energy.’”

“Without any doubt the components technology for space solar power as well as various system concepts have been developed and tested successfully,” says Dr. Neville I. Marzwell, NASA-JPL Advanced Concepts and Technology Innovation Manager (recently retired). “The next logical steps are the validation of power transmission from space to ground, and power storage at a continuously increasing level to validate the economical analysis and create financial, technical, social, environmental, and political support across the globe. The industrial countries of the world cannot and should not miss this opportunity to meet their energy demand safely while creating financial and job growth.”

“We run on energy like Rome ran on slavery,” says Hoffert.”But we’ve hit an economic, energy and environmental wall. Space-based solar power is a technologically ready path over the wall to sustainable high tech civilization on Earth; an ideologically cross-cutting approach encompassing the military-industrial complex and Occupy Wall Street.

“It can create real jobs, both near- and long-term in orbital light and power industries of the 21st century much as the NASA’s Apollo Program industrialized the South to produce high tech cars and aircraft today. And of course space-based solar power offers a unique challenge to the U.S. in the spirit of Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley: ‘Don’t tell us the sky’s the limit when our footprints are on the Moon.’”

Ref.: John C. Mankins, Editor, Space Solar Power: The First International Assessment of Space Solar Power: Opportunities, Issues and Potential Pathways Forward, International Academy of Astronautics, 2011

PRESS CONFERENCE! NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY TO ANNOUNCE GROUND-BREAKING GREEN ENERGY SOLUTION (IAA study on Space Solar Power)

2011-11-05T08:45:00.001-05:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY TO ANNOUNCE GROUND-BREAKING GREEN ENERGY SOLUTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 4, 2011

CONTACT
Gary Barnhard, Executive Director, National Space Society, 1155 15th
Street, NW Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005 gary.barnhard@nss.org
Office: 202.429.1600 Direct: 301.509.0848

MEDIA ADVISORY: NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY TO ANNOUNCE GROUND-BREAKING
GREEN ENERGY SOLUTION

Washington, D.C.—The National Space Society (NSS) will hold a press
conference on November 14, 2011, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to announce the findings of a
ground-breaking space solar power study conducted by the prestigious
International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

"With space solar power technology, energy can be collected from
space and transmitted wirelessly anywhere in the world,” said Mark
Hopkins, the leading Executive Officer of the National Space Society.
"This technology could be the answer to our energy crisis. We look
forward to sharing the results of the IAA's study, and exploring the
potential that space solar power has for creating thousands of green
energy jobs,” he added.

This event is free and open to the public. Members of the press are
encouraged to attend.

Amateurs Find Asteroids

2011-10-22T19:47:00.000-05:00

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2048797/Amateur-skywatchers-Tenerife-impact-threat-asteroid.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Amateur skywatchers in Tenerife find 'impact threat' asteroid

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:30 PM on 13th October 2011

Amateur astronomers have for the first time spotted an asteroid that comes close enough to earth to pose a threat of impact.
Volunteers picked out the cosmic rock - named asteroid 2011 SF108 - last month from the observatory in the Canary Islands.
The breakthrough discovery could signal the first of many more asteroid sighting around the world as keen amateurs become more equipped with advanced technology.

Threat: Asteroid 2011 SF108 is seen in the centre of the picture circled by a red ring

Space experts said the sighting highlighting the value of ‘crowd-sourcing’ to science and planetary defense.
The discovery of asteroid 2011 SF108 was made by the volunteer Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey (TOTAS) team during an observation slot sponsored by ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program.
The four-night survey used the 1m-aperture telescope at ESA’s Optical Ground Station at Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

This is not the first asteroid found under SSA sponsorship, but it is the first that qualifies as a ‘near Earth object’ – an object that passes close enough to Earth during its orbit around the Sun that it could pose an impact threat.
During TOTAS observations, the telescope runs automated asteroid surveys for several hours using software developed by amateur astronomer and computer scientist Matthias Busch from the Starkenburg Amateur Observatory in Heppenheim, Germany.
However, potential sightings must still be evaluated by humans.
A team of 20 volunteers analyses each of the images to highlight anything that appears to be moving through space.

Breakthrough: The observatory in Tenerife at an altitude of 2393 metres from where the asteroid was detected

Recording developments: Amateur astronomers monitor the sky in the darkened control room of the ESA's Optical Ground Station in Tenerife

The team successfully picked out the anomaly during the session on 28/29 September and it was was later confirmed as an asteroid.
Detlef Koschny, Head of asteroid activity for SSA, said: 'Images are distributed to the entire team for review, and any one of them could be the discoverer of a new asteroid. This time, the luck of the draw fell to Rainer Kracht.
'As volunteer work, it is very rewarding. When you do spot something, you contribute to Europe’s efforts in defending against asteroid hazards.'
'When you do spot something, you contribute to Europe’s efforts in defending against asteroid hazards.'
The orbit of asteroid 2011 SF108 brings it no closer than about 30 million km to Earth – a safe distance.
The object is the 46th asteroid discovered by Mr. Kracht, a retired school teacher who lives in Elmshorn, near Hamburg, Germany.
He said: 'Eight of us reviewed images on the night of the discovery, and I was lucky to be the one who found 2011 SF108 as part of this team.
'The discovery was only possible with the excellent software developed by Matthias Busch, who also spotted this object in the images on the second night and sent the observations to the Minor Planet Center.'
To date, some 8000 asteroids have been discovered worldwide but many thousands more are suspected to exist, particularly in the size of meters to hundreds of meters. It is important to find and track these to determine if any pose an impact threat to Earth.
TOTAS is helping to lay the foundation for a future European asteroid survey as part of the full SSA program, which is to be decided in 2012.
Such a survey would use multiple 1m telescopes to scan the complete sky every night, a much larger effort than at present, and is expected to discover several asteroid per week. It would use a mix of professional and ‘crowd-sourced’ astronomers.
Currently, professional asteroid surveys are performed only in the USA. The only significant asteroid survey in Europe now is the La Sagra Sky Survey, undertaken by amateur astronomers in southern Spain.

http://www.space.com/13272-asteroid-discovery-amateur-astronomers-2011-sf108.html

A team of amateur astronomers has discovered a previously unknown asteroid in orbit that brings it near the Earth, highlighting the contributions regular folks can make to planetary defense, scientists announced Wednesday (Oct. 12).

The skywatchers spotted the asteroid, which is known as 2011 SF108, in September using a telescope in the Canary Islands. While 2011 SF108's orbit appears to bring it no closer to Earth than about 18 million miles (30 million kilometers), it still qualifies as a near-Earth object — the class of space rocks that could pose a danger to our planet.

The team took advantage of an observation slot sponsored by the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program to make the find, according to an ESA announcement.

"As volunteer work, it is very rewarding," said Detlef Koschny, head of near-Earth object activity for SSA, in a statement. "When you do spot something, you contribute to Europe's efforts in defending against asteroid hazards." [Photo of newfound asteroid 2011 SF108]

Amateurs make a find

Asteroid 2011 SF108 was discovered by the Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey (TOTAS) team, a group of 20 skywatching volunteers. They used the 1-meter telescope at the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Specifics on the asteroid's estimated size were not detailed in the ESA announcement.

The telescope observed for four nights, running automated asteroid surveys using software developed by amateur astronomer and computer scientist Matthias Busch from the Starkenburg Amateur Observatory in Heppenheim, Germany.

Busch's software flags potential space rocks, but the finds must be confirmed by human eyes. The software scored a hit during the observing session of Sept. 28 and 29, researchers said.

"Images are distributed to the entire team for review, and any one of them could be the discoverer of a new asteroid," Koschny said. "This time, the luck of the draw fell to Rainer Kracht."

Kracht, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Elmshorn, Germany, is therefore 2011 SF108's official discoverer. He now has found 46 asteroids, researchers said.

To date, about 8,000 near-Earth objects have been discovered worldwide, but many thousands more are suspected to exist. Astronomers are keen to find as many of them as possible, so they can better assess the chance that a big, dangerous space rock will slam into Earth sometime soon.

Since starting their SSA-sponsored survey work in January 2010, the TOTAS amateur astronomers have identified nearly 400 candidate asteroids, 20 of which have been confirmed and named, researchers said.

Determing the orbit

After examing telescope images from three separate nights, the TOTAS team was able to determine 2011 SF108's orbit well enough to declare it a near-Earth object.

The team sent news of its find to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., the worldwide clearinghouse of information about comets and asteroids.

While 2011 SF108 appears not to pose much risk to Earth for the foreseeable future, further observations could help refine its orbit and our assessment of just how dangerous it might be, researchers said. But for now, the team can bask in the glow of discovery for a spell.

"It was really an exciting moment when I saw 'our' asteroid appearing on my computer screen," Koschny said. "It confirms the excellent quality of work done by the entire TOTAS team."

From:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/amateur-astronomers-locate-near-earth-asteroid

Amateur astronomers locate near-Earth asteroid

Amateur astronomers have identified nearly 400 candidate asteroids since January 2010, 20 of which have been confirmed and named.

By Mike WallThu, Oct 13 2011 at 3:04 PM EST

NEW FIND: Observations coordinated by ESA's Space Situational Awareness program have led to the discovery of a previously unknown near-Earth object, asteroid 2011 SF108 in Sept. 2011. The asteroid orbits the sun in a path that brings it within about 18 million miles (30 million km) of Earth. (Photo: ESA)

The team took advantage of an observation slot sponsored by the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program to make the find, according to an ESA announcement.

Amateurs make a find

Specifics on the asteroid's estimated size were not detailed in the ESA announcement.

Busch's software flags potential space rocks, but the finds must be confirmed by human eyes. The software scored a hit during the observing session of Sept. 28 and 29, researchers said.

"Images are distributed to the entire team for review, and any one of them could be the discoverer of a new asteroid," Koschny said. "This time, the luck of the draw fell to Rainer Kracht."

Kracht, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Elmshorn, Germany, is therefore 2011 SF108's official discoverer. He now has found 46 asteroids, researchers said.

Since starting their SSA-sponsored survey work in January 2010, the TOTASamateur astronomers have identified nearly 400 candidate asteroids, 20 of which have been confirmed and named, researchers said.

Determing the orbit

After examing telescope images from three separate nights, the TOTAS team was able to determine 2011 SF108's orbit well enough to declare it a near-Earth object.

The team sent news of its find to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., the worldwide clearinghouse of information about comets and asteroids.

"It was really an exciting moment when I saw 'our' asteroid appearing on my computer screen," Koschny said. "It confirms the excellent quality of work done by the entire TOTAS team."

IAA to Reveal their new study on Space-Based Solar Power

2011-10-17T05:08:00.000-05:00

The International Academy of Astronautics, the "who's who" technical society of the international space community, will be unveiling its 3-year, 10-nation study "Green Energy from Space Solar Power" at a Press Conference Sponsored by the National Space Society (NSS) on 14 November, at the National Press Club.

National Space Strategy: proactive or reactive?

2011-10-05T20:32:00.003-05:00

by Christopher Stone
Monday, October 3, 2011

“Where there is no vision, the people perish” – Proverbs 29:18

“…space preeminence is essential if the US is to be a great power and continue to be a great power.” – Major General James Armor, USAF (Retired)

Throughout its history, America has notoriously been reactive when it comes to its national strategy. The United States was the nation to invent the powered airplane, but was slow to realize its potential until European powers seized the opportunity. When it came to space, some historians argue that had the Soviet Union not orbited a satellite and later a cosmonaut, there would have been no Apollo program or human space program of the kind we think of when the phrase “spacepower” is bandied about. In those situations, America had the industrial might and political fortitude to see the threats at hand to their global influence as a superpower on the world stage. However, recently some events have been occurring in the space frontier that seems to indicate a lack of vision and highlights the need for a national space strategy: space based solar power (SBSP) in China.

Recently, the Chinese have committed to the development and deployment of SBSP architectures as a vital part of the nation’s “future direction”, according to a paper by three space scientists from the China Academy of Space Technology.

Many may read that last sentence and wonder, “What’s the big deal about the Chinese experimenting with SBSP?” As many in the United States government and elsewhere believe, SBSP is the stuff of science fiction; pipe dreams of space advocacy groups that aren’t found in the real world. However, since the publication of the National Security Space Office’s analysis of the security implications of SBSP, the Chinese have seen that SBSP is not necessarily a pipe dream, has economic and political merit, and is important to China in the future.

Recently, the Chinese have committed to the development and deployment of SBSP architectures in low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) as a vital part of the nation’s “future direction”, according to a paper by three space scientists from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). This new effort demonstrates Chinese resolve toward a sustainable and long-term strategy for their nation that sees space as the vital national interest and instrument of power that it is. It enables positive advantages in several areas of global power and influence, three of which are economic power, technological prowess, and innovation. All of these enable their planned achievement of global leadership and preeminence in space.

Why this push for SBSP in China? Their global interests are increasing due to their economic growth and reach on several continents. As a result, natural resources and energy will become increasingly critical to their goals. With their growing dominance of vital space- and weapons-related resources like rare earth metals, and other natural resources such as oil, the Chinese see themselves as a leading economic power in the world. This increased economic power has helped increase their role in international financial and diplomatic institutions. Because of this increasing need for energy resources to advance their economic growth and power, the Chinese government has been exploring new options for future resources “inside earth” but acknowledge their needs might surpass the natural resources they have access to. This has prompted the Chinese government to look to space.

According to the paper by CAST, “the state has decided that power from outside the earth, such as solar power and the development of other space energy resources is to be China’s future direction.” This is not a mere statement of desire as is the case in many circles of the United States space advocacy arena; rather it is a real program that is “currently under development in China”.

Having the necessary access to space-based energy resources will enable the Chinese to “sustainably develop” and meet the “thirst for energy to water its blooming industries” that have created it as “one of the principal economies in the world. “ To achieve this goal of power and influence economically, the Chinese have developed a national strategy that explores three advantages of SBSP: sustainable economic and social development, disaster prevention and mitigation, and cultivating innovative talents through an increased space effort the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Apollo program. This would require technological innovation on a grand strategic scale.

According to the CAST paper, “The acquisition of space solar power will require development of fundamental new aerospace technologies, such as revolutionary launch approaches, ultra-thin solar arrays, on-orbit manufacture/assembly/integration (MAI), precise attitude control, in-situ resource utilization for deep space exploration and space colonial expansion.” This demonstrates that SBSP is not just one project for economic leadership of China, but part of a grand strategy of space power expansion and a desire to be the leading space power on Earth. They acknowledge this through the comparison of the Apollo project and its benefits for the United States. “In the last century, America’s leading position in science and technology worldwide was inextricably linked with technological advances associated with implementation of the Apollo program. Likewise, China’s current achievements in aerospace technology are built upon with its successive generations of satellite projects in space, China will use its capabilities in space science to assure…” the Chinese development of space development and energy in space.

As mentioned previously, China’s desire is to be recognized as the leader in space. To do this, and to support their future economic power and influence worldwide, energy development and the applications of space resources are the way forward. Their human spaceflight program, including the recent launch of Tiangong 1 and the autonomous rendezvous and docking technologies they are developing, will enable the new technologies needed for this SBSP architecture as well as Chinese long-range plans for deep space exploration and “colonial expansion”.

This plan for space includes the following five-step plan to achieve their SBSP plans (concurrently with their space station development and other programs):

2010: CAST finished their concept design

2020: Finish the industrial level testing of in-orbit construction and wireless transmissions

2025: Complete the first 100kW SBSP demonstration in LEO

2050: The first operational level SBSP system will be deployed in GEO.

While this is a long-range plan, the fact that the Chinese are proceeding with its development in conjunction with their efforts in the economic and military/human spaceflight spheres shows a resolve and foresighted strategy that understands the need and strategic impact that space power has on the balance of power and influence in the world. Even if many in America and elsewhere believe that the United States is the undisputed leader in space exploration and development, one need only look at the America’s current space strategy to find the difference in the visions for national space leadership in the two nations. Compared with the Chinese, the United States does not have a long-range national space strategy or direction, and desperately needs one.

Leadership in space should not be assumed: it requires hard, continued work to assure its existence into the future.

What is the United States doing about this challenge to its global leadership in space and economic matters? Not much. In March 2011, the Obama Administration released its “Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future”, but that document doesn’t mention SBSP at all, even as something worthy of consideration. In the National Space Policy of 2010, the Obama Administration mentions space nuclear power—as past policies have—but does not mention any effort to develop SBSP for the United States or its allies, much less the “colonial expansion” that the Chinese are advocating and planning for.

While many in the United States government see SBSP as a pipe dream, many other nations, friendly and otherwise, see our lack of initiative and vision as an opportunity to become the world leaders in space and seize its strategic effects for their countries’ economic, diplomatic, and military power worldwide. If the United States does not craft a similarly far-reaching national space strategy, it may be left in a situation where it cannot compete globally in the new markets of space resources and on-orbit energy applications. This could adversely affect US influence abroad and at home.

The National Space Society, in addition to the previously mentioned National Security Space Office report, has explored the security and economic benefits of SBSP in the last decade. Our friends in Japan and India are also exploring this potential opportunity. It’s time the US government examined the current strategic situation and proactively explored the development and deployment of SBSP as one step in our quest to push America out into the solar system for the development and “colonial expansion” of our society. Leadership in space should not be assumed: it requires hard, continued work to assure its existence into the future.

Christopher Stone (B.A., M.A.) is a space policy analyst and strategist near Washington DC.

To Deflect Killer Asteroids, Humanity Must Work Together

2011-10-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

http://www.space.com/13164-killer-asteroids-deflection-humanity-cooperation.html

PASADENA, Calif. — The biggest obstacle in deflecting a killer asteroid away from Earth may be humanity's inability to get along.

We already have the technological know-how to prevent dangerous space rocks from barreling into our planet, provided we detect them in time. But this vital job would require a great deal of international cooperation, experts say, and history has shown that working together is not our species' strong suit.

"Somebody's got to make the decision to actually mount the deflection, and do it," said former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman of the B612 Foundation, a group dedicated to predicting and preventing catastrophic asteroid impacts on Earth.

"That is not technical, but it's the toughest problem of all," Schweickart said here at the California Institute of Technology on Sept. 28, during a panel discussion called "Moving an Asteroid."

Not if, but when

Our planet has always been pummeled by space rocks. A 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid slammed into Earth 65 million years ago, for example, wiping out the dinosaurs.

A potentially civilization-ending asteroid will bear down on Earth at some point, panelists stressed. It's a question of when, not if — and it could happen uncomfortably soon, they said.

Over the eons, asteroids big enough to cause serious damage today (not necessarily the extinction of our species, but disruptions to the global economy and civilizations around the world) have struck Earth every 200 to 300 years, Schweickart said. [5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids]

While the dinosaurs were helpless victims of this death from the sky, 21st-century humans don't have to be.

"What's cool is, we can do something about it," said panelist Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society and former host of the science-themed TV show "Bill Nye the Science Guy."

Giving asteroids a push

Humanity has the technical skills to move asteroids in several different ways, panelists said. We can hurl a large body into them, for example, changing their orbit with one dramatic impact.

NASA did just that in 2005, sending a small probe careening into the comet Tempel 1 to determine the icy wanderer's composition. The goal in that case was science rather than planetary defense, but the key is that humanity knows how to do it with today's technology.

Asteroid deflection could also work in more subtle ways.

Scientists could sidle an unmanned spacecraft up next to a potentially dangerous asteroid, then let the duo cruise through space together for months or years. Over time, the probe's modest gravity would tug the asteroid into a different, more benign orbit, Schweickart said.

This so-called "gravity tractor" technique would allow for precise deflection, making it perhaps the most attractive option, provided we have enough lead time.

Scientists know how to do this, too. Various robotic missions have met up with asteroids over the years, with some even landing on or touching the space rocks. Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft even plucked some pieces off one in 2005, then sent the samples back to Earth for analysis.

If we didn't have very much warning time, and if the threatening space rock was too big to just knock around with an impactor, we could try to blast it apart with a nuclear missile. But this option should only be employed as a last resort, as it may end up doing more harm than good, panelists said.

"Momentum is conserved," Nye said. "If you blow it up, then the whole giant spray of rocks is coming at the Earth instead of one."

Global cooperation needed

A potential asteroid strike would represent a global problem that the world would most likely have to tackle together, Schweickart said.

Cost is one issue that would bring nations together, though likely not the main one. A deflection missionmight cost $500 million to $1 billion, Schweickart estimated. So it wouldn't exactly break the bank of the United States or another world power, but fairness would still seem to dictate that the costs be shared.

But many countries would want to be involved to make sure their own voices were being heard, and their own interests were being protected.

Say, for example, that an asteroid appeared to be headed for impact in the north Atlantic Ocean. Russia or China might push for a plan to nudge the asteroid to the west, away from them. The goal, of course, would still be to divert the asteroid away from Earth entirely — but Asia might be spared if the mission moved the asteroid a little, but not enough.

Conversely, the United States and Canada might want to move the asteroid in the other direction. [Natural Disasters: Top 10 U.S. Threats]

"That's why this geopolitical issue is very, very sticky," Schweickart said. "We've got to have agreement between nations."

Starting early

Such agreement might be tough to come by, especially since an effective deflection mission would have to be initiated early to have the best chance of success. We'd need lots of lead time, for example, to launch a gravity tractor spacecraft and give it time to tug on the asteroid.

In fact, we'd have to launch the mission before we were absolutely sure that the space rock in question was actually going to strike Earth, according to Schweickart.

"If you wait until you know, it's too late to act," he said.

Schweickart is pushing hard to raise awareness of the asteroid threat, and to convince people of the need to plan accordingly. He's afraid that the world will have a hard time pulling the trigger on a potentially civilization-saving mission.

"The likelihood is, we're going to end up with a big international debate until the day it hits," Schweickart said. "That's the most likely scenario."

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/asteroid-moving/

The Plan to Bring an Asteroid to Earth

By Adam Mann

PASADENA, Calif. — Send a robot into space. Grab an asteroid. Bring it back to Earth orbit.

This may sound like a crazy plan, but it was discussed quite seriously last week by a group of scientists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology. The four-day workshop was dedicated to investigating the feasibility and requirements of capturing a near-Earth asteroid, bringing it closer to our planet and using it as a base for future manned spaceflight missions.

This is not something the scientists are imagining could be done some day off in the future. This is possible with the technology we have today and could be accomplished within a decade.

A robotic probe could anchor to an asteroid made mostly of nickel-iron with simple magnets or grab a rocky asteroid with a harpoon or specialized claws (see video below) and then push the asteroid usingsolar-electric propulsion. For asteroids too big for a robot to handle, a large spacecraft could fly near the object to act as a gravity tractor that deflects the asteroid’s trajectory, sending it toward Earth.

“Once you get over the initial reaction — ‘You want to do what?!’ — it actually starts to seem like a reasonable idea,” said engineer John Brophy from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who helped organize the workshop.

In fact, many of these ideas have been on the drawing board for years as part of NASA’s planetary defense program against large space-based objects that might threaten Earth. And there’s no shortage of potential targets. NASA estimates there are 19,500 asteroids at least 330 feet wide — large enough to detect with telescopes — within 28 million miles of Earth.

Though rearranging the heavens may seem an excessive undertaking, the mission has its merits. The Obama administration already plans to send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid, a mission that would coop them up in a tiny capsule for three to six months, and involve all the risks of a long deep-space voyage. Instead, robots could shoulder some of that burden by bringing an asteroid close enough for astronauts to get there in just a month.

Parking an asteroid in a gravitationally neutral spot between the Earth and the sun, known as a Lagrange point, would provide a stationary base from which to launch missions further into space. There are several advantages to this. For one, launching materials from Earth requires a lot of power, fuel, and consequently money, to get out of our planet’s deep gravity well. Resources mined from an asteroid with very little gravitational pull could be easily shuttled around the solar system.

And many asteroids have a lot to offer. Some are full of metals such as iron, which can be used to build space-based habitats while others are up to one-quarter water, which would be either used for life-support or broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to make fuel. As well, asteroid regolith placed around a spaceship hull would shield it against radiation from deep space, allowing safer travel to other planets.

An asteroid could be an alternative to setting up camp on the moon, or complement a moon base with more resources for heading further out in the solar system, said engineer Louis Friedman, cofounder of the Planetary Society and another co-organizer of the Caltech workshop.

There’s also the potential for mining asteroid materials to bring back to Earth. Even a small asteroid contains roughly 30 times the amount of metals mined over all of human history, with an estimated worth of $70 trillion. And astronomers would have the chance to get a close-up look at one of the solar system’s earliest relics, generating important scientific data.

Though technically feasible, budging such a hefty target — with a mass in excess of a million tons — would not be easy.

“You’re moving the largest mother lode imaginable,” said former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, cofounder of the B612 Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes.

Most asteroids are irregular chunks of rock that spin chaotically along irregular axes. Engineers would need to be absolutely certain they could control such a potentially dangerous object. “It’s the opposite of planetary defense; if you do something wrong you have a Tunguska event,” said engineer Marco Tantardini from the Planetary Society, referring to the powerful 1908 explosion above a remote Russian region thought to have been caused by a meteoroid or comet. Of course, any asteroid brought back under the proposed plan would be too small to cause a repeat of such an event.

Still, these obstacles are like catnip to engineers, who love to go over every potential difficulty in order to solve it. Actually executing the asteroid retrieval plan would help demonstrate and greatly expand mankind’s space-based engineering capabilities, said Friedman. For instance, the mission would teach engineers how to capture an uncooperative target, which could be good practice for future planetary defense missions, he added.

And if the challenges for a large asteroid seem too daunting, researchers could always start with a smaller asteroid, perhaps six to 30 feet across. Gradually larger objects could be part of a campaign where engineers learn to deal with progressively greater complications.

Last year, Brophy helped conduct a study at JPL to look at the feasibility of bringing a 6.5-foot, 22,000-pound asteroid — of which there might conceivably be millions — to the International Space Station. This mission would help astronauts and engineers learn how to process asteroid materials and ores in space.

The JPL study suggested the asteroid could be captured robotically in something as simple as a large Kevlar bag and then flown to the space station or placed in a Lagrange point. Of course, such a small object might not have the same emotional impact as a larger destination. “NASA isn’t going to want to go to something that is smaller than our spaceships,” said engineer Dan Mazanek from NASA’s Langley Research Center.

No matter the size of the asteroid, these plans would require hefty investments. Even capturing a small asteroid would consume at least a billion dollars and anything larger would be a multi-billion-dollar endeavor. Convincing taxpayers to foot such a bill could be tricky.

Considering the resources available in any asteroid, private industry might be interested in getting involved. One possible mission would be to simply execute the first part of the plan — pushing the asteroid to near-Earth orbit — and then convene a commercial competition inviting anyone who wants to develop the capabilities to reach and mine the object.

Though the undertaking might be scientifically exciting, this wouldn’t be the primary motivation. An asteroid would provide great insight into the solar system’s formation, it’s not enough to justify the expense of bringing one to Earth. Any interesting science can be done much cheaper with an unmanned robotic spacecraft, said chemist Joseph A Nuth from NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.

“Ultimately, we would be developing this target in order to help move out into the solar system,” Brophy said.

Though they did not reach a consensus on all the details, the group will reconvene in January to hammer out further specifications and potentially get the interest of NASA.

In the end, many agreed that bringing an asteroid back to Earth could create an interesting destination for repeated manned missions and that the undertaking would help build up experience for future jaunts into space.

Could ISS serve mankind?

2011-10-05T18:08:00.002-05:00

Old story but unique image: http://www.space.com/3317-space-solar-power-crowd-bets-obama.html

90% of Planet Killers Found: Only 20,000 City killers remain undetected

2011-10-01T16:22:00.000-05:00

NASA gets WISE, downs estimate for near-Earth asteroid population
Examiner.com
Worldwide devastation and possibly an end to civilization as we know it, all the more reason to keep looking and working on planetary defense systems. ...

NASA meets asteroid discovery goal
Nature.com
Asteroid exploration has been a priority of US president Barack Obama and has boosted efforts onplanetary defense and near-Earth asteroid discovery. ...

NASA meets asteroid discovery Goal:

NASA is claiming a major victory as its latest calculations suggest it has reached a congressionally-mandated target of finding more than 90% of near-Earth asteroids capable of causing a planet-wide catastrophe.

Calculations using observations made by the recently-retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) telescope, shows that 911 of an estimated 981 near-Earth objects over one kilometre in size have been discovered. None are thought likely to hit Earth

"We thought this warranted a press conference. It's something we've been working towards for 12 years now," Lindley Johnson NASA's Near-Earth Object program executive, tells Nature.

In 1998, Congress mandated that NASA find 90 per cent of asteroids in this category. But in 2005, that goal was extended to include 90% of asteroids down to 140 meters in size -- and NASA is nowhere near there yet. Prospects for reaching that goal appear howver to have dramatically improved today, as calculations by the Near-Earth Object WISE team released today show that the likely population of medium-sized objects between 100 metres and one kilometer in size is smaller than thought – around 20,000 as opposed to the 35,000 that had been estimated.

Asteroid exploration has been a priority of US president Barack Obama and has boosted efforts on planetary defense and near-Earth asteroid discovery. In October 2010, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assigned NASA as the lead agency on planetary defense, Nature reported.

NASA Get's WISE, downs estimate for near-Earth Asteroid population

Earlier this afternoon, NASA held a press conference dealing with the subject of potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids. While no one knew exactly what the conference was going to be about, NASA did disclose that the announcement would have to do with the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)observatory, which had a 13 month mission looking for asteroids from space.

The announcement: we can breathe easier, WISE's findings have led NASA to adjust the estimate for near-Earth asteroids to about 20,000, down from over 35,000. Yes, that's still a lot of asteroids out there but that's 50% less than the old estimates.

The caveat: there could be thousands more yet to be discovered.

Rightnow, there are millions of known asteroids (and untold numbers more undiscovered) floating around the solar system, mostly in the Main Asteroid Belt, which is safely between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Of the millions of asteroids, over 20,000 (down from 35,000) are classified as near-Earth. Of the near-Earth objects, just over 1,100 are considered as "potentially hazardous," which is defined as an object over 500 feet in diameter that can come within 4.6 million miles of Earth.

Obviously, a metallic space rock 500 feet across traveling at up to 15 miles per second could do an immense amount of damage. For comparison, the object (most likely a comet) that caused the Tunguska Incidentwas probably less than 100 yards (300 feet across) but still leveled forests for over 1,000 square miles.

Needless to say, if such an object (even a small one) were to hit a populated area, the death toll would be apocalyptic. Large impactor? Worldwide devastation and possibly an end to civilization as we know it, all the more reason to keep looking and working on planetary defense systems .

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Continue reading on Examiner.com NASA gets WISE, downs estimate for near-Earth asteroid population - National Space news | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/space-news-in-national/nasa-gets-wise-downs-estimate-for-near-earth-asteroid-population#ixzz1ZZDqVZeT

China Unveils Plan to Orbit Solar Power Station

2011-09-04T16:55:00.000-05:00

From: http://goldsea.com/Text/index.php?id=11640

China Unveils Plan to Orbit Solar Power Station

A plan to build and orbit a Chinese solar energy station for commercial use by 2040 has been developed by space technology pioneer Wang Xiji. The plan calls for a complete analysis of space solar power applications, detailed design of system solutions and verification of key technologies by 2020.

“The development of a solar power station in space will fundamentally change the way in which people exploit and obtain power,” said Wang while presenting the results of his team’s research at the China Academy of Sciences.
“Whoever takes the lead in the development and utilization of clean and renewable energy and the space and aviation industry will be the world leader,” said Wang at the fourth China Energy Environment Summit Forum on Aug 28.
Wang, 90, believes such a station will trigger a technical revolution in the fields of new energy, new material, solar power and electricity, and possibly even another industrial revolution.
Wang envisions the program using existing technology to launch solar-collector satellites into geostationary orbit. These satellites would convert the sun’s radiation into electricity 24 hours a day and safely transmit it via microwaves to rectifying antennas on Earth. The concept had first been proposed in 1968 by U.S. space expert Peter Glaser.
Currently, the U.S., Japan, Europe and Russia have plans to invest several billion dollars to establish a number of 1 million-kilowatt power stations between 2030 and 2040.
Though China has taken no such steps for a space-based solar energy station, it has made rapid progress in developing earth-based solar power. In 2010 China had 800,000 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic power capacity and 168 million square meters of area using solar-powered water heating.
China’s 12th five-year plan aims to boost the country’s solar photovoltaic power generation capacity to 10 million kilowatts by 2015 and 20 million kilowatts by 2020.
The efficiencies that can be realized by an orbiting solar power station would let it harness five times the solar energy captured by comparable stations on the ground.

from: http://news.ifeng.com/mil/4/detail_2011_07/12/7634514_0.shtml
also discussed at Pakistan Defense: http://www.defence.pk/forums/china-defence/119745-chinas-space-solar-power-station-million-tons-cost-up-1-trillion.html#post1946550

At 10:44 on July 12, 2011

China's space solar power plant: thousands of tons cost up to $ 1 trillion

Source: Guangming Daily

Space solar power diagram (Figure)

Do you dare? Construction of power stations in space

The very large solar arrays placed in Earth orbit, composed of solar power stations, solar power plant will be solar energy into electrical energy. American scientist Peter Glasgow in 1968 race (Peter Glaser) first proposed the idea of space solar power station built, the basic idea is: the very large solar arrays placed in Earth orbit, composed of solar power stations, will be inexhaustible , inexhaustible solar energy into thousands of megawatts of power, then electrical energy into microwave energy, and the use of microwave or wireless transmission to Earth.

Energy conversion device converts electrical energy into a form of microwave or laser (laser or directly through the solar energy conversion), and using the antenna beam can be sent to the ground. Have information that, in theory, in the sunny geostationary orbit, each square meter of solar heat can produce 1336 watts, if deployed in a geostationary orbit width of 1,000 meters of solar arrays ring, assuming the conversion 100% efficiency, then it receives in the year is almost equal to the flux of solar radiation on Earth are known to contain recoverable oil reserves of the total energy.

Ground receiving system receives the space solar power station can transmit to the beam, and through the conversion device to convert it into electricity. The whole process has gone through solar energy - electricity - microwave (laser) - Power of energy into the process. Space solar power plant construction and operation of the process also need to include large-scale delivery systems, space transportation systems, and complex logistics system.　

China's development of space solar power station "four-step" scenario

Currently, the domestic space solar power station is still in its infancy stage.China Academy of Space Technology in the space solar power station sponsored national seminar on the development of technology, experts proposed the development of space solar power station in China "road map." Summed up in four stages:

Phase I: 2011 and 2020

Full analysis of space solar power plant applications, space solar power station to carry out detailed design of system solutions and key technologies, key technologies for authentication.

Verify wireless energy transmission technology focus, efficient high-power solar power technology, launched large-scale structure of the assembly and high voltage power supply system, there are ground-power wireless energy transmission experiment, the ground started large-scale structure and assembly technology, testing, to face the stratosphere airship wireless energy transmission experiment, relying on the space station launched a large-scale structure and assembly technology testing.

Space solar power station will be very huge objects, quality of tons or more. (Figure)

Phase II: 2021 -2025 years

Use of our space station platform, the participation of the astronauts to conduct China's first low-orbit space solar power system development, system validation carried out in 2025. Focus on verification of large deployable space structures and assembly of large space condenser system and its control, power supply management system, large-scale structure of the attitude control technology, wireless energy transfer technology (laser, microwave), space solar power plant operation and maintenance management .

Phase III: 2026 -2040 years

In the low-orbit validation of key technologies on the basis of further research more economically and technically viable space solar power system solutions and key technologies, breaking the track between the high-power electric propulsion technology, developed by Earth's orbit validation system, about 2030 around the launch of the space - ground, space - space wireless energy transmission system to carry out validation, the development of commercial systems provide important operating parameters. System operating life of 10 years. Preliminary consideration of the system for their own space in the low-orbit assembly, and the use of the space station and astronauts some assembly work, and solve problems in space assembly, assembly and testing is completed, the overall delivered to geosynchronous orbit.

Phase IV: 2036 -2050 years

Combined with the operational status verification system, combined with technological development, the development of China's first commercial space solar power systems, space solar power plant to achieve commercial operation, operational life of 30 years.

Space solar power station faces huge challenges

The current building space solar power station is the first technical problem.Space solar power station is a huge project for existing spacecraft technology made a great challenge: a large scale, quality and reach million tons, higher than the current satellite four orders of magnitude, requires new materials and new vehicle technology; area of several square kilometers, higher than the current satellite six orders of magnitude, we need a special structure, assembly and attitude control of space technology; power, generating power for GW, higher than the current satellite six orders of magnitude, the need special power management and thermal control technology; long life, at least 30 years, compared with more than double the current satellites, new materials and in-orbit maintenance technology; high efficiency, the need for advanced space solar power conversion technology and microwave conversion transmission technology.

Second is cost. Some experts estimate, the construction of a space-based solar power would cost 300 billion to 1 trillion U.S. dollars. Therefore, the cost might be restricting the development of space solar power station of the main factors. In the new concepts, new technologies and large-scale commercial before the income is difficult to compensate for the overall system construction and operating costs.

Long-range energy transfer is a huge technical issues (information)

Once again, the environmental impact. Although the power of large space solar power station, but due to microwave energy transmission distance (36,000 km), according to the transmission characteristics of microwave energy, the energy density of the actual receiving antenna is low.

Finally, operational issues. Space solar power plant operation in many issues, including the need to take appropriate measures to secure control of the beam problem, the impact of the aircraft, space debris on space solar power station may cause local damage, easy to attack, could become space junk, etc. In addition, there are orbits and frequencies, capacity, ability to launch and other issues.

Outside the program

USA 1979 SPS Reference System: This is the first relatively complete space solar power plant system design, completed in 1979 by the United States to the United States half of the generating capacity of the target design. The design for the layout of the geostationary orbit on 60 power-generating capacity of 5 GW of power generation satellites.

Integrated Symmetrical Concentrator systems: NASA in the late 1990s, the SERT research program proposed in the plan. Located on both sides of the mast with a large clam-shaped solar reflector to the condenser is located in the center of two photovoltaic arrays. Condenser for the sun, the mast, the battery array, transmitting array as a whole, rotation on the ground. Condenser and the mast rotation in response to each other daily and seasonal variations of the track.

Distributed tethered satellite system in Japan: a single module to reduce the complexity and weight of Japanese scientists proposed a distributed concept of tethered satellite. The basic unit consists of a size of 100 meters × 95 meters of the unit board, and satellite platforms, cell boards and satellite platforms using four 2 km to 10 km of rope suspension together. By the solar cell board, microwave conversion device and the transmitting antenna consisting of sandwich board, contains a total of 3800 modules. The total weight of each cell board is about 42.5 tons, microwave energy transmission power of 2.1 MW. Board composed of units from the 25 sub-panels, 25 sub-boards throughout the system. The design of the modular design is very clear, is conducive to system assembly, maintenance. But the system continued to show great quality, in particular, the use of less efficient.

European solar sail tower: Europe in 1998, "Space and explore the use of the system concept, structure and technology research" proposed in the plan of the European concept of solar sail tower. It is based on the solar tower concept of the United States, and the use of many new technologies. The most important is the use of lightweight structures that can be expanded - a solar sail. It can significantly reduce overall system weight and reduce the difficulty of assembling the system. Each of which a solar sail as a battery array module size of 150 m × 150 m, automatically launched into orbit, assembled in low-Earth orbit system, and through the electric thrusters to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Since the program uses the gradient method to achieve stable directional transmitting antenna on Earth, so solar panels can not achieve sustained directed against Japan. (Purple Xiao Shao Huiying)

Space solar power test vehicle simulation diagram (Figure)

Imagine the map of space solar power station (information)

Space solar power installations imagine diagram (Figure)

Ground huge solar panels solar power station (information)

Use in future space solar power will be a core technology (information)

Figure imagine future space colonies (information)

------

Dr. APJ Kalam also gave a recent address in China On Space Solar Power

http://118.91.233.120/kalam/jsp/display_content_front.jsp?menuid=28&menuname=Speeches%20/%20Lectures&linkid=68&linkname=Recent&content=1898&columnno=0&starts=0&menu_image=-

Speeches / Lectures

Address at the CEES 2011

Delhi – Beijing Teleconference , Aug 27 2011

Updated on Aug 28 2011

Published bywww.abdulkalam.com

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HARVESTING SPACE SOLAR POWER THROUGH WORLD KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM
"Inventions and discoveries have emanated from creative minds that have been constantly working and imagining the outcome in the mind. With imagining and constant effort, all the forces of the universe work for that inspired mind, thereby leading to inventions and discoveries." I am delighted to address the Opening Ceremony of the 3rd China Energy and Environment Summit. I congratulate the organizers of this Summit for their devoted and dedicated efforts to bring together eminent leaders and experts on a common platform for exchange of views, for high-level dialogue and discussions on a topic of profound importance to all humanity. It is essential that the energy policy of the nations and clean environment for the planet earth have to be integrated in our thoughts and actions. I am sure, CEES will achieve this goal during the deliberations of this summit.


This Summit seeks rightly, views and ideas on finding feasible technical and economic solutions for the energy and environmental crisis faced by the world. Both China and India stand for a multi-polar world and insist on comprehensively improving and developing relations with major powers in an effort to create a sound international environment for their sustainable economic development. When I am with all of you I would like to share some thoughts on the topic *"HARVESTING SPACE SOLAR POWER THROUGH WORLD KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM".*


Since, harvesting solar power from space involves a multi dimensional space program jointly initiated by all the space faring nations, present and in the future, I would like first discuss with all of you about my own experience as a space scientist and the space vision required to achieve societal missions from space, which includes harnessing energy from space.

Evolution of space vision
I have been advocating International cooperation for the large scale space missions including space based solar satellites, whenever I had an occasion to interact with the international space communities. I have evolved a World Space Vision 2050 which I am going to discuss. This space vision further gone through various discussion at international space forum at Caltech ? USA, Boston University, International Space University, Strasburg; CNES, France; and 58th International Astronautical Congress at Hyderabad-India. There was also a panel discussion on "Space and the Environment, Sensible Space Investment" in the CALTECH campus. I also visited JPL and had a briefing on some futuristic research; development and mission efforts related to exploration of solar system and beyond, search for extra terrestrial life, further moon exploration and Mars exploration. Today with the space community including Chinese space experts in the CEES 2011. As I was interacting with international space experts and listening to the presentations on the various national space missions, the following thoughts on the challenges for space community have emerged to me.

The challenges for space community
The problem facing the humanity on life on earth and protection and sustainability of environment, requires many areas of research like integrated study of atmosphere, accurate forecasting and predictions of climate and weather, breakthroughs in earthquake forecasting, making energy independence and finding solution to water problems for the growing population for the world and fast track improvement of education and healthcare system throughout the globe. They require integrated global approaches and synergy of all space faring nations.


While in the last fifty years, tremendous progress has been made by space faring nations in space science, technology and applications, our understanding of our own planet is limited, and we have much less knowledge of moon, mars, other planets and the solar system and beyond. I find planning and conducting such missions need lead times of the order of 10-15 years and individual nations find it difficult to increase the rate of exploration momentum with the available technology level, funds and human resources.


In the last fifty years, space faring nations have developed core competence like strong application orientation in India, planetary mission and space station capabilities in USA and Russia, a model of nations working together in Europe and manned space mission capability in China. The launch vehicle and spacecraft expertise exist in many of the space faring countries. There have been a number of missions with bilateral and multilateral partnership with several complimentary efforts. The question is whether the international cooperation is consistent with the challenges of the next fifty years. Can we graduate in the ensuing years to partnership missions among space faring nations for the benefit of entire humanity using the core competence of multiple nations, financial sharing and management mechanism with overall goals like solar power satellite, industrial belt on the Moon and the habitat on the Mars. Political will and concern for the well being of planet earth have to be the focus for such international missions.


Missions can be evolved, but one important constraint among space faring nations is the non-availability of the right type of young human resources. I heard many space experts in the conference in CALTECH during 2007, as to how they were inspired by sputnik and Apollo era and I have witnessed the tremendous response it had created among the youth and the experienced when India?s Chandrayan-I with NASA Payload M3 discovered H2O/HO water molecule in Moon. So what we need is a global vision that would attract the imagination of young and inspire them to their own dreams to achieve. Spotting young talent and training them requires attention internationally.


There was strong feeling among many participants that enough communication is not ensured by the performing space community with general public on the system they have created using space technology for welfare fo the humanity.

World Space Vision 2050
With the above background and strength of technological progress in Space systems in the world, I have been suggesting to the World Space Community to evolve World Space Vision 2050 with the following three components:


1. Large Scale Societal missions and Low cost access to space: There is definitely a need for space faring nations to work together to develop reusable launch vehicles, which can bring down the cost of payload in orbit from the present US $ 20,000 per kg to US $ 2000 per kg and eventually to $200 per kg 2. Comprehensive space security: I suggested the creation of an International Space Force (ISF) made up of all space faring nations wishing to participate and contribute to protect world space assets in a manner, which will enable peaceful use of space on a global cooperative basis. 3. Space exploration and current application missions: Space exploration mission for material like helium3, water and life and the current application missions in tele-communication, remote sensing and other societal applications and considering Earth-moon-mars as a single economic complex for the benefit of humanity.

Paradigm shift in foreseeing space of next fifty years
I am of the view that the present capabilities of major space faring nations are not optimally utilized. The launch vehicles of the world, the spacecraft of the world, the application potential of the world, the space scientific research potential of the world and above all the huge costs envisaged for space 2050 programmes would call for certain "paradigm shift" in nations to work together to bring the benefits of space to humanity as a whole. This is possible as my experience suggests, only if we have a hard cooperation of each nation contributing substantially in technology and resource. In this context, I would like to share with you two Indian experiences in international cooperation.


One, is a Joint venture programme between India and Russia with equally shared funding of $300 million that has resulted into development leading to production of a world?s first supersonic cruise missile called Brahmos in the defence sector leading to the business worth of $10 Billion.


Another experience of India is the Pan African e-Network Initiative costing over $120 million, for connecting 53 Pan African Nations for providing tele-education, tele-medicine, and e-governance services meeting the Millennium Development Goals of Africa set by United Nations. Similarly USA, Europe, China and other countries have many experiences in hard cooperation. These experiences give me the confidence that hard international cooperation, resulting dedicated funds, fixed timelines leading to designed products which are mutually beneficial to all the participating nations, indeed can accelerate the application of space science and technology leading to fast results for societal application. Such international cooperation itself aid the security dimension in space. Two international teams,one on technology and the other in creative management could be formed to come up with proposals and investments to achieve the goal of low cost access to space. Such an accomplishment of a goal would enable taking up mass missions that were not in the realm of individual nations hither to fore. A world space vision can trigger many young towards hitherto "impossible" challenges. With this background let me propose a management structure for realizing the visions.

World Space Council
The World Space Vision 2050 would enhance the quality of human life, inspire the spirit of space exploration, expand the horizons of knowledge, and ensure space security for all nations of the world.


In this context, I suggest to the China Energy and Environment Summit (CEES) members, to evolve and recommend the implementation of a World Space Council, consisting of space faring nations, to formulate and implement World Space Vision as discussed. The World Space Council with global participation could oversee the planning and implementation of exploration, energy and societal missions. Such a unified approach will enable the world to see a quantum jump in the progress in space science and technology for the benefit of all the nations of the world. Many of you represent countries that have brought about the incredible space revolution in the last 50 years. What we need today is a step function as a global space initiative to implement a World Space Vision and missions for an enhanced quality of life for a peaceful and safe world. One of the important missions of this council would be to develop and deploy space systems needed for harvesting and transmitting energy from space to earth. Let me discuss this aspect in detail.

Space Based Solar Power:
On the 30th May 2010, I addressed the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) where I talked about the possibilities of harvesting energy from space through space based solar power. This conference was attended by many of the experts from the space community, who got interested with the presentation I had made. This led to further discussions and formulations which culminated into the evolution of the idea of Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative for Space Solar Power Satellite with focus on convergence of competencies from different nations towards the realization of a futuristic mission for green energy from space. On the 4th of November 2010, this initiative was declared to the global audience by National Space Society of United States and was participated by representatives from Indian Space Research Organization and Artemis Innovation Management.

"Kalam NSS Initiative on Space Solar Power Satellite"
The sun, as you all know, radiates about 10 trillion times the energy which human consumer across the world today. If we are able to extract even a small portion of this energy from the sun, it would be sufficient to secure the energy demands of our future.


Friends, space based solar power has many advantages over traditional terrestrial based solar plants. First, the level of Solar Irradiance is about 1.4 times in extraterrestrial level than at the surface of the earth. Second, in case of surface based solar power plants the panels can collect solar power for about 6 ? 8 hours a day, whereas, in the case of space based power plant, the collection time is full 24 hours. Also, the space based solar power plants are not affected by the weather conditions, which may bring down the efficiency in case of terrestrial power plant. Thus space based solar power plant would be far more effective in their efficiency and power generation than the land based systems.


There are three major focus areas in the space based solar power plant. First component is the space based solar power plant. Second, is the earth based collection system. And the third important aspect is the medium of transmission from space to earth. The aspect of safety and efficiency has to be paramount in the way energy is transmitted from space back to earth ? either through microwave or any other technology like laser technology. Careful research of the impact and safety concerns would have to be conducted. One way to increase safety and improve efficiency could be the evolution of nano-packs, which are reusable, and can move like small batteries carrying charge back and forth from space solar station to ground reception. Another, approach could be to make the reception centres as pre-designated offshore sites to reduce the safety issues.


Another important factor is the cost of the space based power plant, which given the current launch technologies, would be very high and needs to brought down. Among the largest cost components of installing a space based solar power plant will be the launching cost of the components into the orbit. The current estimates range in billion of dollars for an average plant size. There is a need to bring down this cost. The long term cost of a space solar power plant for time period of 20 years of operation has to be brought down to under $0.10 per Kw-h to make it economically sustainable. Can we do this? It has to come through a multi-pronged approach.

Nano-energy-packs
When I am with such enlightened audience like all of you, I would like to share a new thought on transmission of solar power from space to earth, that may be safe and cost-effective. Science has history of making the impossible, today, and a reality of tomorrow. I venture now to suggest some ideas that may sound highly challenging and leave as food for thought for all of you to take up the challenge, for I am sure that if best brains gathered here, vouch to work together, all these impossible dreamer?s ideas will become real and the world become the best place to live. Having established that the space is another destination for the man?s quest for renewable energy, I have few ideas that may be out of the ordinary. While one could approach the transmission of energy from space through micro waves and laser beams from space, I am thinking of attempting to transport "nano energy packs" , like nano batteries back and forth between space and earth. These nano energy packs may contain materials hitherto unknown but would store the energy through reversible chemical reaction or may be electrical reaction and when brought back to earth, can deliver energy per kg of payload touching several hundreds of watt hours. During my visit to Rice University, USA on 22 August this year, I met nano-technology scientist experts at Nano centre of Rice University which has created two Nobel Laureates (Robert Curl and Richard E Smalley) in nano-chemistry. I was very happy to know, this Rice University group is also working on flexible nano-structure for solar power storage. Dear friends, you may like to think about it and our research scientists can work on nano energy packs. The scientists of any part of the world can contact for further discussion through my e-mail ID apj@abdulkalam.com .

Conclusion: Proposal for a Global SSP Feasibility Study Initiative
In view if these 20th and early 21st century developments in the energy and aerospace sectors of national economies, several space faring nations now have the capability to team up and cooperate in an enduring, firmly integrated consortium of stakeholders to further the development of international space based solar power stations and all the required enabling technologies such as safe, affordable and reliable access to space. Steps forward could be taken up in a self-renewing manner in three phases: Phase 1: International Preliminary Feasibility Study (2-3 years) Phase 2: Detailed Feasibility Study and Engineering Demonstrations on Ground and in Space (5-7 years). Phase 3: Industrialization (self-sustaining & self-renewing far into the future (20 years).


World Knowledge Platform : For the realization of these missions, we have to share knowledge world-wide, and feely exchange data and information to establish the technical and economic feasibility of designing, building and operating a system-of-systems consisting of low cost space transportation and space solar satellites. I suggest this is done in an open and transparent manner through a consortium of selected world universities, laboratories and industries organized and administered as a World Space Knowledge Platform. This knowledge platform may be recommended in the form of a global not-for-profit Foundation, as the first immediate step by mutual understanding between interested nations. Once the Feasibility Study that would include scaled version of technology demonstrations of SSP and its critical enabling technologies to a world space standard, is completed, then subsequent action could commence on commercial scales organized. Many nations are participating in this CEES 2011 from G8 nations. As India and China are always invited for crucial meeting of G8 nations, it is time CEES can think of white paper on solar power station indicating, how clean energy, cost effective energy, abundance energy is possible through solar power satellites. My best wishes to all the members present at CEES 2011 in their mission of evolving and implementing new clean green energy initiatives from space for rejuvenating our planet. May God Bless you.

By, Dr. APJ Abdulkalam

www.abdulkalam.com

China Space Agency Looks To Capture Sun's Power

2011-09-04T09:40:00.000-05:00

Space Agency Looks To Capture Sun's Power

By Stephen Chen [binglin.chen@scmp.com]

Hong Kong South China Morning Post Online in English

Sep 3, 2011

A mainland space agency says the government should build solar power stations in space to solve China's energy problems.

The China Academy of Space Technology, a research institute under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said on its website on Thursday that it had submitted a plan to the central government to build a massive facility in space to capture solar power and relay it to earth to generate electricity.

Li Ming, deputy director of the academy, received enthusiastic feedback on the ambitious plan at a conference on Wednesday that included senior officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other agencies, the statement said.

The mainland is home to the world's largest manufacturing plants of solar panels, and with the bankruptcy of three US manufacturers in the last month, mainland companies now dominate the world supply, accounting for almost three-fifths of total capacity, a report in The New York Times said yesterday.

Economies of scale, low wages and technological advances have enabled Chinese companies to make solar panels cheaply, firing up mainland space scientists' ambitions.

Professor Wang Xiji, a key drafter of the proposal, wrote an article in the Ministry of Science and Technology newspaper Science Times saying that China had built up a solid industrial foundation, acquired sufficient technology and had enough money to carry out the most ambitious space project in history.

Once completed, the solar station, with a capacity of 100MW, would span at least one square kilometre, dwarfing the International Space Station and becoming the biggest man-made object in space, he wrote.

Wang said the solar station would overcome several shortcomings of earth-based plants, such as sensitivity to weather, wasteful land use and a complete shutdown at night. Put in a permanent geostationary orbit, high enough to escape most of the earth's shadow, it would provide a consistent energy supply for 99 per cent of the year.

Wang warned that if it did not act quickly, China would let other countries, in particular theUS and Japan, take the lead and occupy strategically important locations in space.

The US space agency Nasa proposed a solar power station as early as the 1960s, while Japan's Jaxa selected a group of companies and researchers in 2009 to design and build the Space Solar Power System, a massive array of photovoltaic panels, with an anticipated launch date of 2020.

But some scientists said a solar station in space faced technical hurdles that could not be solved by today's technology. The problems include how to lift a large amount of construction materials into space, how to put them together and how to transfer the energy to earth.

Chinese space scientists are considering lasers and microwaves, generating concentrated beams that could travel a long distance with relatively little energy loss. But they have not figured out how to protect people or birds that might get in the way.

Professor Jiang Kaili, a physicist at Tsinghua University, said that in theory wireless energy transmission was possible. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US had used strong resonate coupling technology to transfer energy via a magnetic near-field with impressive efficiency.

"The range of transmission reaches a few metres," he said. "It will need to get out of a room before venturing to space."

China unveils plan for solar power station in space

2011-09-04T09:39:00.001-05:00

From: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20110902000023&cid=1105

China unveils plan for solar power station in space

Chinese space technology pioneer Wang Xiji believes solar energy stations in outer space will be a key energy resource in the future. (File Photo/CFP)

"The development of a solar power station in space will fundamentally change the way in which people exploit and obtain power," Wang Xiji, a space technology pioneer at the China Academy of Sciences, said while presenting the results of his team's research on developing such a station.

Speaking about China's ambitious space solar energy program, 90-year-old Wang said such a station could promote international cooperation. "Whoever takes the lead in the development and utilization of clean and renewable energy and the space and aviation industry will be the world leader," Wang said at the fourth China Energy Environment Summit Forum on Aug 28.

The program will utilize existing technology to launch solar-collector satellites into geostationary orbit. These satellites will convert the sun's radiation into electricity 24 hours a day,and safely transmit the electricity via microwaves to rectifying antennas on Earth. The concept was first proposed by US space expert Peter Glaser in 1968.

Currently, the United States, Japan, Europe and Russia have plans to invest several billion US dollars in establishing their own 1 million-kilowatt power stations to begin operation between 2030 and 2040. China has not yet taken its first step in this regard.

A team led by Wang completed research on the development, timelines and policy for space solar power station technology in August. The program offers guidelines for developing such a station. It aims to complete analysis of space solar power applications, detailed design of system solutions and key technologies as well as key technologies for authentication by 2020. Under the plan, a space solar energy station for commercial use will be completed by 2040.

Wang believes such a station will trigger a technical revolution in the fields of new energy, new material, solar power and electricity.

Wang said the area of space and aviation is an emerging strategic industry and the development of a space solar-energy station requires high-end technology. Such a program would lead to the emergence of several industries, Wang said. He believes it could lead to a technical revolution and possibly even an industrial revolution.

China's solar energy stations down on planet Earth have developed rapidly. In 2010, the country's solar photovoltaic power capacity was 800,000 kilowatts, while 168 million square meters of area used solar-powered water heating.

The government's 12th five-year plan also proposes increasing the country's solar photovoltaic power generation capacity to 10 million kilowatts by 2015 and 20 million kilowatts by 2020.

It is estimated that a solar power stationin orbit could harness five times the solar energy captured by stations on the ground.

Li Ming, a space technology expert said that after 50 years of development, China's space and aviation industry has made significant progress and laid a sound foundation for a space solar power station.

References

Wang Xiji 王希季

Chinese Scientists Plan to Pull an Asteroid into Orbit Around Earth

2011-09-04T09:38:00.000-05:00

from: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/chinese-scientists-hatch-plan-pull-asteroid-orbit-around-earth

Chinese Scientists Plan to Pull an Asteroid into Orbit Around Earth

By Clay Dillow Posted 08.31.2011 at 2:58 pm 34 Comments

Pictured: Humans Tempting God to Smite Them Hexi Baoyin, Yang Chen, Junfeng Li via arXiv

Last week Chinese scientists wanted to divert an asteroid away from Earth. This week, they want to pull one into orbit around the Earth. What’s possible objections could anyone have to this idea?
The notion stems from a phenomenon the researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing noticed from time to time with Jupiter. Every now and then our solar systems biggest planet pulls in an object from space, which orbits the planet for a time before jetting off into interplanetary space again.

We could do something similar with a number of near earth objects (NEOs) that will pass near Earth in the coming years and decades. None of these objects will pass close enough to be naturally captured by Earth’s gravity, but a few will come so close that a small nudge in the right direction would put them in orbit--likely a temporary orbit--around Earth.
The idea isn’t simply to flirt with cataclysmic danger, but to bring a small object (they suggest a 10-meter object called 2008EA9 that will pass nearby in 2049) into a loop around the Earth so we can study it closely for a few years. If we can get the art of capturing asteroids orbitally down to a science, we could use it to temporarily make asteroids into Earth-bound satellites (orbiting at about twice the distance of the moon), mine them for minerals, and then send them on their ways.
Read the paper at arXiv.

A Chinese Solar Sailing Scheme to Divert the Asteroid Apophis from its Collision Course with Earth

2011-09-04T09:37:00.002-05:00

from: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/chinese-scientists-hatch-plan-pull-asteroid-orbit-around-earth

A Chinese Solar Sailing Scheme to Divert the Asteroid Apophis from its Collision Course with Earth

By Clay Dillow Posted 08.19.2011 at 10:02 am 31 Comments

Diverting Near Earth Asteroids With Solar Sailing Spaceships As you can see here, this will be a piece of cake. Shengping Gong, Junfeng Li, Xiangyuan Zeng via arXiv

For all the apocalypse talk that gets tossed around by psuedo-scientists and religious blowhards, rarely do we hear mention of Apophis, the 50 million-ton asteroid that actually might come close enough to Earth to warrant an end-of-the-world scare sometime in 2029. In that year it will pass so close to us that we’ll be able figure the trajectory for its return trip in 2036. If it passes through an area of space near our home planet known as the “keyhole,” it spells doom--on its return pass in 2036 it likely would strike us. Luckily, the Chinese are already on top of this one.
Apophis’ keyhole is pretty small, just 2,000 feet wide. In space terms, that’s practically nothing. That means that the chances of Apophis passing through the keyhole at all aren’t great. But it also means that it would only take a very small nudge sometime prior to 2029 to ensure that it misses the keyhole altogether. And that’s where a handful of Chinese researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing come in.

In a paper they describe how Apophis could be deflected using a small spacecraft powered by a solar sail into a retrograde orbit on a collision course with the asteroid. That retrograde orbit--that’s an orbit opposite that of Apophis--would give it a hell of an impact speed, something like 55 miles per second. That kind of impact, executed far enough in advance, should push Apophis out of its current orbit enough to keep it clear of that keyhole, no Bruce Willis necessary.
But it sounds easier on paper than it really is. NASA’s solar sailing technology is nascent. Japan’s is better but still in its infancy. And as Tech Review's KFC points out, we’re talking about slinging this spacecraft way out into space where it would cruise for years before reaching Apophis--akin to the old “hitting a speeding bullet with a speeding bullet” analogy. Should the solar winds shift unexpectedly, we might miss. And if we miss Apophis, there’s nothing to guarantee that Apophis will miss us.
Luckily we have some time to figure this one out. Read the paper at arXiv.

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