Space Based Solar Power: Time to Put it on the New US-India S&T Endowment Fund

from: http://www.orfonline.org/cms/sites/orfonline/modules/analysis/AnalysisDetail.html?cmaid=22177&mmacmaid=22178

Space Based Solar Power: Time to Put it on the New US-India S&T Endowment Fund?

Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan 02 April 2011 With the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, isn’t it time for India and the US to make serious commitments to Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP)? Japanese crisis has triggered worldwide re-thinking on the feasibility of pursuing nuclear energy to meet growing global energy demands. This has kick-started a debate also in India not only on the safety of nuclear plants but also on other energy options. It is time that India and the United States and the countries around the world looked at an often-overlooked option: SBSP. The idea of harnessing SBSP as an option originated in the United States some 40 years ago. But it has not been pursued with vigour for a variety of reasons, including possibly the influence of nuclear lobbyists. In simple terms, SBSP is described thus by Lt. Col. Peter Garretson of the US Air Force: "In this concept, very large satellites, the largest ever constructed, made up of kilometers of solar cells, would collect the Sun’s energy where there is no light, and convert it to radio-waves to be beamed to special receiving antenna farms on the ground (called rectennas) about the size of a small airport. The energy is sent in the form of a low energy beam at about 1/6th the intensity of normal sunlight that falls on earth. But because it is a low-energy, non-ionizing wavelength, it is not as dangerous as sunlight with its high energy ultraviolet rays. At the rectenna, the energy is reconverted and sent via the existing electrical grid. Such satellites would necessitate a fleet of re-useable space planes, and as a consequence of economies of scale, reduce the cost of space access a hundred fold, enabling many other applications.2 It is estimated that one kilometre-wide band of geo-synchronous earth bit can produce solar flux to match as much as the total amount of energy produced from all the different recoverable oil reserves on Earth.  The idea was promoted by none other than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam first at the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) and later again at a press conference in Washington DC last year. The initiative is now titled as the Kalam-NSS (National Space Society) Energy Initiative. The Kalam-NSS initiative is an India-US partnership taken up by individuals with long-term expertise in the space realm. Some of the key people involved are, in addition to Dr. Kalam, Mark Hopkins, CEO of the US-based National Space Society and John Mankins, President of the Space Power Association and a veteran of NASA. On the Indian side, there seems to be some official involvement due to the involvement of Dr. T.K. Alex, who is the Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centre, Bangalore and leader of the Chandrayan-I project.  Speaking in New Delhi in November last year, Dr. Kalam said that "by 2050, even if we use every available energy resource we have, clean and dirty, conventional and alternative, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, coal, oil, and gas, the world will fall short of the energy we need by 66%. There is an answer. An answer for both the developed and developing countries. This is a solar energy source that is close to infinite, an energy source that produces no carbon emissions, an energy source that can reach the most distant villages of the world, and an energy source that can turn countries into net energy exporter."3 According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide demand for primary energy increases by 55 per cent between 2005 and 2030 - 1.8 per cent hike per year on average; and for India, the demand is expected to more than double by 2030, growing at 3.6 per cent rate per year.4  With energy demand growing rapidly, the SBSP option offers huge opportunities. Such an option will also be reportedly a cleaner energy option. This option would also significantly augment India’s capabilities in the space domain, which will have far-reaching positive spin-offs in the ever-changing security environment in Asia. This will bring the much-desired focus on the question of technology transfer between India and the US, Japan and Israel.  India has looked at this option for quite sometime. In 1987, the first bit of work was undertaken looking at advanced space transportation system design concepts for cost-effective space solar power. Recently, ISRO is reported to have done some exercise looking at the feasibility of this option and examined three specific configurations. Thereafter, ISRO is believed to have welcomed an International Preliminary Feasibility Study.Unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants, SBSP is available throughout the year, in huge quantities. It can also reportedly work irrespective of conditions that are a problem for other alternative energy sources such as cloud cover, availability of sunlight, or wind speed. What has prevented the SBSP from becoming a real option? Is it the enormous cost involved in developing the option or is it an option that never got the popular attention due to the multiplicity of departments involved? Proponents argue that the cost of SBSP should not be compared to the direct costs involved. The cost-benefit analysis needs to be done on a different scale, including the direct and indirect cost of global warming and climate change. Otherwise, the costs of developing this technology may seem exorbitant.  What are the options to meet this cost? Are the Indian and American governments and private sectors willing to make significant investments on the R&D of this technology? The US-India Agreement to establish an S&T Board and an Endowment to carry out research (July 20, 2009) appears to be an ideal basis for new research and development on SBSP. SBSP seems like an ideal candidate because this fund seeks to finance projects on a broad spectrum of issues of mutual benefit such as biotechnology, health and infectious diseases, advanced materials and nanotechnology science, clean energy technologies, climate science, basic space and atmospheric and earth science among others. The US side of funding for the Endowment is reported to come from the US S&T "Rupee Funds" established in the 1980s to encourage and fund bilateral S&T projects.5 However, for the SBSP per se, there appears to be interest among the private sector companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman and on the Indian side, Tatas have shown interest in exploring this option.  While this can potentially be an excellent case for public-private partnership, the initiative has to come from the government. India’s foray into space and its space policies have had strong civilian and developmental roots and accordingly the government needs to place the SBSP within its overall national space policy. India’s decision to pursue SBSP will have multiple impact -clean energy, clean environment, advancement in the space arena with technology transfer as a given between India, US and Japan. 1Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Her areas of research include US foreign and security policy, military strategies of major Asian powers including China, US, Japan and Russia, space and nuclear security. She can be reached atrpr@orfonline.org; rajeswarirajagopalan@gmail.com.  2Peter A Garretson, "Power the Final Frontier: Could Satellites in Orbit be a Source of Energy for the Future? It’s Possible," Satkal Times, May 22, 2009. For a detailed study, see Peter A Garretson, "Sky’s No Limit: Space Based Solar Power, the Next Major Step in the Indo-US Strategic Partnership?," IDSA Occasional Paper No. 9, (Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, August 2010), p. 17.  3Announcement of the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative, The NSS Conference Announcement, November 05, 2010, available at http://blog.nss.org/?cat=5. 4International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2007: China and India Insights, International Energy Agency, Paris, 2007, p. 42 and 46.  5Press Information Bureau, "US-India to Establish a Bi-National Science and Technology Endowment Fund and Joint Commission," India PR Wire, March 3, 2006.

National Space Society Announces the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative

From: http://www.nss.org/

National Space Society Announces the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative

(Washington, DC -- October 30, 2010)

The National Space Society will hold a press conference Thursday, November 4 at the National Press Club to reveal one of the first initiatives ever undertaken by a non-profit American organization and a former head of state. That initiative pairs India's eleventh President, Dr. A.P.J. Kalam with America’s National Space Society. Its name? The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative.

The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative’s goals? To solve the global energy crisis. To solve the global carbon crisis. And to solve America’s next generation jobs crisis. How? By harvesting solar power in space.

Mark Hopkins, the CEO of the National Space Society, says, "The Kalam-NSS initiative is a transformative idea that can upshift the US and Indian economies by meeting the urgent global need for a scalable, carbon-neutral, green, 24-hr renewable power source. It is a game-changing technology that addresses energy security, sustainable development, climate change, and multinational cooperation." Concludes Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, "I am convinced that harvesting solar power in space can bring India and United States of America together in whole new ways. And I am certain that harvesting solar power in space can upgrade the living standard of the human race."

Read the full announcement here [PDF file].

PRESS CONFERENCE! 4 NOV Hope you can attend! Apparently both Dr. APJ Kalam and ISRO ISAT's PRESS CONFERENCE! 4 NOV The National Space Society will hold a press conference Thursday, November 4 at the National Press Club to reveal one of the first initiatives ever undertaken by a non-profit American organization and a former head of state. That initiative pairs India's eleventh President, Dr. A.P.J. Kalam with America’s National Space Society. Its name? The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative. The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative’s goals? To solve the global energy crisis. To solve the global carbon crisis. And to solve America’s next generation jobs crisis. How? By harvesting solar power in space. World electricity demand by the year 2035 is projected to increase by 87%. Renewable power generation systems (water, wind, solar, geothermal, etc.) will only meet 23% of that demand. According to Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, “By 2050, even if we use every available energy resource we have: clean and dirty, conventional and alternative, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, coal, oil, and gas, the world will fall short of the energy we need.” He adds that, “There is an answer… an energy source that produces no carbon emissions, an energy source that can reach to most distant villages of the world, and an energy source that can turn both countries into net energy and technology exporters.” It's space solar power. Dr. T.K. Alex, Director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and leader of the Chandrayan-1 project that discovered water on the moon, and John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran considered the world’s leading authority on space solar power, will give the details via electronic feed, and National Space Society CEO Mark Hopkins will explain in person at the November 4th press conference. # # # Energy and India are hot topics. President Barack Obama is meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh November 7th and 8th. The two are committed to joint research and development on energy issues. The National Space Society and former Indian President Dr. Kalam believe that Obama and Prime Minister Singh should adopt space solar power as one long-term answer to their nations’ needs. To that end, the next step in the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative will be a National Space Society joint Indian-American conference on space solar power at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, May 18-22. Space solar power has the potential to reverse America’s half a trillion dollar a year balance of payments deficit and to generate a new generation of American jobs. Why? Space solar power is a source whose basic technology is already here. The United States has been harvesting solar power in space and transmitting it to Earth since 1962, when Telstar, the first commercial satellite, went up. That satellite, Telstar, looked like a beach ball encrusted with square medallions. The medallions were photovoltaic panels. And India has been harvesting solar energy in space since 1975, when its first satellite, Aryabhata A, went into orbit. Every square centimeter of Aryabhata’s exterior was tiled with solar panels. Today harvesting energy in space and transmitting it to Earth is a quarter of a trillion dollar industry…the commercial satellite business. You use solar energy harvested in space when you watch soccer games from other continents, when you tune into satellite TV or satellite radio, when you use the Global Positioning System (GPS), when you consult the pictures in Google Earth, and when you use your cell phone. Mark Hopkins, the CEO of the National Space Society, says, "The Kalam-NSS initiative is a transformative idea that can upshift the US and Indian economies by meeting the urgent global need for a scalable, carbon-neutral, green, 24-hr renewable power source. It is a game-changing technology that addresses energy security, sustainable development, climate change, and multinational cooperation." Concludes Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, “I am convinced that harvesting solar power in space can bring India and United States of America together in whole new ways. And I am certain that harvesting solar power in space can upgrade the living standard of the human race.” # # # Dr. T. K. Alex, who will be available to answer questions at this press conference, is the Director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Centre, Bangalore. He led the Chandrayaan-1 project, the first Indian mission to the Moon, which resulted in the discovery of water on the Moon’s surface. Now he is guiding and directing the development of Chandrayaan-2 and sixteen new Indian satellites. John Mankins, who will also be available, is a 25-year NASA veteran who ran NASA’s most recent multi-million dollar study of space solar power. For more information, please contact Gary Barnhard at 202-420-1600 or gary.barnhard@nss.org When Thu, November 4, 9:30am – 11:00am GMT+05:30 Where National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Bloomberg Room Who (Guest list has been hidden at organizer's request) Dr. TK Alex will be present by phone. When: 9:30 am-11:00 am November 4, 2010 Where: National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Bloomberg Room From: http://www.nss.org/ National Space Society Announces the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative (Washington, DC -- October 30, 2010) The National Space Society will hold a press conference Thursday, November 4 at the National Press Club to reveal one of the first initiatives ever undertaken by a non-profit American organization and a former head of state. That initiative pairs India's eleventh President, Dr. A.P.J. Kalam with America’s National Space Society. Its name? The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative. The Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative’s goals? To solve the global energy crisis. To solve the global carbon crisis. And to solve America’s next generation jobs crisis. How? By harvesting solar power in space. Mark Hopkins, the CEO of the National Space Society, says, "The Kalam-NSS initiative is a transformative idea that can upshift the US and Indian economies by meeting the urgent global need for a scalable, carbon-neutral, green, 24-hr renewable power source. It is a game-changing technology that addresses energy security, sustainable development, climate change, and multinational cooperation." Concludes Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, "I am convinced that harvesting solar power in space can bring India and United States of America together in whole new ways. And I am certain that harvesting solar power in space can upgrade the living standard of the human race." Read the full announcement here [PDF file]. When Thu, November 4, 9:30am – 11:00am GMT+05:30 Where National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Bloomberg Room Who (Guest list has been hidden at organizer's request)

US-India Friendship Net identifies Space-Based Solar Power as a Big Idea

From: Ram Narayanan <ramn_wins@roadrunner.com>
Subject: A POSSIBLE BIG TICKET ITEM FOR THE OBAMA VISIT
To: Undisclosed-Recipient@yahoo.com
Date: Sunday, 10 October, 2010, 7:04 AM

Dear Friends:

A keen observer of US-India relations writes:
"Based on several conversations in the last two weeks in Washington, it’s obvious that teams of dedicated government officials are working very, very hard in advance of President Obama’s trip to India to make it a success. Much effort is being expended to break down interagency barriers on previously trenchant issues. One expects positive developments could be seen in areas such as export control and the Entities List."  "As the search for big ideas continues, one of the focus areas for the future of security dialog is likely going to be security of the ’Global Commons’. India and the US can and must work together as large democracies to set norms for behavior in the Commons." 

"In the context of ’big ideas’, IDSA recently released a paper by USAF Lt. Col. Peter Garretson, who was visiting on a Council on Foreign Relations fellowship. The paper suggests solar satellites as a joint project between the US and India as a possible vehicle to take the partnership to the next level. "

"This is the type of big idea that both bureaucracies and political decision-makers could get their arms around as being ’unique’. In the initial phases, the study of the applicability of such technology to Indian and American needs, as well as its export potential, would not be prohibitive and on the Indian side could interest entities like BHEL and ISRO."

Peter A. Garretson was a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) International Fellow in India, and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) New Delhi. He is an active duty Air Force officer on sabbatical as an Air Force Fellow. He was previously the Chief of Future Science and Technology Exploration for Headquarters Air Force, Directorate of Strategic Plans and Programs, and is a former DARPA Service Chiefs’ Intern, and former Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Service Academy Research Associate. He is a published author on Space Grand Strategy, and is a recipient of the National Space Society’s (NSS) Space Pioneer Award.

His paper is titled,

"Sky’s no limit: Space-based Solar Power, the next
major step in the Indo-US Strategic Partnership".

The paper "provides a policymaker’s overview of a highly scalable, revolutionary, renewable energy technology, Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP), and evaluates its utility within the context of the Indo-US strategic partnership. After providing an overview of the concept and its significance to the compelling problems of sustainable growth, economic development, energy security and climate change, it evaluates the utility of the concept in the context of respective Indian and US political context and energy-climate trajectories. The paper concludes that a bilateral initiative to develop Space-Based Solar Power is highly consistent with the objectives of the Indo-US strategic partnership, and ultimately recommends an actionable three-tiered programme to realize its potential."

The paper can be read at http://www.idsa.in/sites/default/files/OP_SkysNoLimit.pdf

Cheers,

Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship http://www.usindiafriendship.net/

The Find of the Millennium!

From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Its-the-finding-of-the-millennium-Nair/articleshow/5635381.cms

From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/NASA-radar-aboard-Chandrayaan-1-finds-ice-on-moons-north-pole/articleshow/5633910.cms

A NASA radar aboard India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has detected craters filled with thick deposits of ice near the moon's north pole, the US space agency said on Tuesday.

NASA's Mini-Sar experiment found more than 40 small craters, ranging in size from one to nine miles, containing water ice.

"Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 600 million metric tons of water ice," the space agency said in a statement. 

----------

Assuming a low-ball estimate that a commercial company like SpaceX could put 100kg on the Moon for $10M, to put an equivalent amount of water from Earth would cost $100M/MT, or  $60,000,000,000 or $60B.  

IAA Space Solar Power Conference in Space Canada is On!

http://www.spacecanada.org/index.php?page=symposium_on_solar_energy

The International Academy of Astronautics, the most prestigious global body on Space Issues and Technology has taken up the study of space solar power!

Note also that the ISRO Chairman, Mr. G. Madhavan Nair has been elected the Chairman of the International Academy Astronautics (IAA), the first Indian and the first non-American to hold the post, and will take over 16 Oct (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/madhavan-nair-new-head-iaa-844). Already this year, the IAA did the world a tremendous service by publishing (via the support of ISRO) its book, Dealing with the Threat to Earth of Asteroids and Comets, and holding the first international Planetary Defense Conference in Granada, Spain. We can hope for such great support and promotion for Space Solar Power as a solution to the developing and developed world's concerns about energy security and climate change.

Neither India, the US, Canada or China has a program yet that responds to the Japanese $21 Billion program just announced in Space Solar Power.

Does SSP have supporters? See this list:

Who has been supportive of establishing a program in SSP, and what they have said in public:

1) From the Space Enterprise Council (SEC) [then under US Chamber] white paper, 2008:
…the urgency of energy needs requires ongoing Federal investment in a balanced portfolio of alternative energy research programs, which should include study of SBSP. Major technical progress already achieved in SBSP-related technologies strengthens the case for including SBSP in the mix of alternative sources to explore...Beyond enhancement of energy production per se, SBSP might help create new economic opportunities through resultant technology advances in space launch, space utilization, and technological spin-offs applicable to a host of materials and processes...For example, SBSP research might lead to improvements in the efficiency of solar cells that power communications satellites, as well as power management systems for terrestrial solar power systems...Also, to the extent that SBSP is integrated into terrestrial solar power production, development of SBSP ground infrastructure might generate revenue even before deployment of systems in space. In this and related applications, SBSP could emerge as an enhancement for, rather than a competitor with, terrestrial solar power generation.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ ssp/library/2008- SECSpaceBasedSolarPowerWhitePa per.pdf

2) From the Abbey-Lane / Baker Institute Report, Maximizing NASA's Potential In Flight and On the Ground: Recommendations for the Next Administration, 2009:

Recommendation 3: Deliver longer-term payoffs (within four to eight years) for energy and the environment…As a potential long-term energy solution, an effort would be made to demonstrate—initially on a small scale—wireless power transmission from space to Earth using shuttle and ISS…this concept has made major strides since its inception …Demonstrating space solar power on a small scale would help us better understand what would need to be done to utilize this concept for electrical power needs.
http://www.bakerinstitute.org/ publications/SPACE-pub- ObamaTransitionAbbeyLaneMurato re-012009.pdf

3) From the Buzz Aldrin / ATWG Policy Statement on NSS Blog
Bush VSE missed (or lacked) almost entirely any strategic vision and goals for supporting and enabling space-based human economic expansion or industrialization in space.
…proposed cabinet-level U.S. Department of Space (DOS), as discussed earlier, should manage and take charge of the government functions of supporting and incubating space-based industrial capability and transportation infrastructure development
…investing in SBSP (space based solar power) and space tourism infrastructures as a significant part of the national space economy and energy programs—is the choice of a strategic space goal that certainly will re-ignite the American spirit
http://blog.nss.org/?p=360

4) National Space Society (NSS), [largest Space Advocacy organization] Position Paper

The National Space Society believes that one of the most important long-term solutions for meeting those energy needs is Space Solar Power (SSP), which gathers energy from sunlight in space and sends it to Earth. We believe that SSP can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems.
http://www.nss.org/ legislative/positions/NSS-SSP- PositionPaper.pdf

5) The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) [most significant space entrepreneur organization] Position
A fundamental challenge in this century is how to provide for the world's growing energy needs. In meeting this challenge, it is vital that we protect the Earth's fragile biosphere. Space Solar Power, or SSP, may be part of the energy solution. SSP could be an environmentally friendly economical energy producing technology that simultaneously promotes the human realization that the Earth is an open system and the human settlement of space.
http://space-frontier.org/ Projects/spacesolarpower/

6) The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the premier world aerospace technical society Policy Paper

The SPS is one of several potentially competitive options for providing a nondepletable source of baseload electric power in the future…The SPS appears to be technologically feasible.
http://pdf.aiaa.org// downloads/ publicpolicypositionpapers// SolarSats-1978.pdf

7) The report of the DoD/NSSO (the only interagency and independent voice for space security) Study Group's 2007 Report:

Space-Based Solar Power does present a strategic opportunity that could significantly advance US and partner security, capability, and freedom of action, and merits significant further attention on the part of the United States Government and the private sector...The SBSP Study Group concluded that SBSP requires a coordinated national program with high-level leadership and resourcing commensurate with its promise, but at least on the level of fusion energy research or International Space Station construction and operations...The SBSP Study Group concluded that should the U.S. begin a coordinated national program to develop SBSP, it should expect to find that broad interest in SBSP exists outside of the US Government, ranging from aerospace and energy industries; to foreign governments such as Japan, the EU, Canada, India, China, Russia, and others; to many individual citizens who are increasingly concerned about the preservation of energy security and environmental quality. While the best chances for development are likely to occur with US Government support, it is entirely possible that SBSP development may be independently pursued elsewhere without U.S. leadership.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ ssp/library/final-sbsp- interim-assessment-release-01. pdf

8) The Department of Commerce, Office of Space Commercialization website currently reads:
As society seeks to identify and develop alternative energy sources for the future that are clean, safe, and continuously available, the concept of space-based solar power (SBSP) is beginning to gain traction as a potential answer to the world's long-term energy needs.

http://www.space.commerce.gov/ power/

9) The Change.gov Visionary White Paper, one of the first 10 circulated by the transition team on Change.gov:

The U.S. federal government has invested over $21 Billion in fusion research in the last 50 years, and the DOE is currently spending $300 million per year on fusion energy research. When choosing a lead agency for SSP, the Administration should establish an SSP research budget within that agency that grows to at least the level of the DOE’s fusion energy research program.
http://change.gov/open_ government/entry/space_solar_ power_ssp_a_solution_for_ energy_independence_climate_ change

10) Spacefaring America White Paper on The End of Easy Energy and What to Do About It:
This paper’s assessment of the energy production potential of conventional nuclear, geothermal, wind, ground solar electric, and land biomass finds that these will fall significantly short of both the U.S.’s or the world’s 2100 sustainable energy needs. To fill the substantial sustainable energy shortfall that will emerge by 2100 as the era of easy energy ends, space solar power and algae biodiesel—absent the extensive use of advanced nuclear energy and/or undersea methane hydrates—will need to be substantially developed. Space solar power will be needed to supply most of the U.S.’s and the world’s dispatchable electrical power generation.
http://mikesnead.net/ resources/spacefaring/white_ paper_the_end_of_easy_energy_ and_what_to_do_about_it.pdf

11) Naval Research Lab Report, 2008
The NRL SBSP Study Group concurs with the conclusions of the numerous previous studies
of preceding decades that the SBSP concept is technically feasible but that there remain significant system risks in many areas...The Group concurs that SBSP offers one of several possible solutions to the energy independence and dominance of our country and our military; and that those alternative solutions (including terrestrial solar, nuclear, and wind) must be an integral part of the solution
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ ssp/library/2008-NRLSBSP- PossibleDefenseApplicationsAnd Opportunities.pdf

12) Dr. Kalam, at the time India's President, and national hero as their lead rocket scientist from both their civil and military programs, address to Boston University on the Future of Human Space Exploration:
However solar flux on earth is available for just 6-8 hours every day whereas incident radiation on space solar power station would be 24 hrs every day. What better vision can there be for the future of space exploration, than participating in a global mission for perennial supply of renewable energy from space?...Space based solar power stations have six to fifteen times greater capital utilization than equivalent sized ground solar stations. Linking Space solar power to reverse osmosis technology for large-scale drinking water supplies could be yet another major contribution of Space.
http://www.rites.com/rites- journal/A.P.J.Abdul%20kalam. pdf

13) The Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) 2007 conference recommendations:
…generate a national consensus for the Global Aerospace and Energy initiative, determine the sources and uses of funding, and evolve a suitable management structure and system to plan and implement the mission
http://www.aesi-hyd.com/ conference07/Panel_ recommendation.htm

14) Interview with Hiroaki Suzuki with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, also known as JAXA. He is one of 180 Japanese scientists working on the program, according to Scientific American.
We expect space solar panel systems will be competitive with the existing power plants in 20 to 30 years, if the space transportation cost is considerably reduced. It should be noted that solar systems do not emit CO2, nor do they create nuclear waste...We are proposing a roadmap that consists of a stepped approach to achieve 1-gigawatt-class commercial space solar panel systems in 20 to 30 years. That means 2030 would see the very beginning of commercial systems. We expect the ultimate percentage of electricity derived from space will be more than several tens of percent. By the way, Japanese total electricity generation was about 275 gigawatts or 990,000 gigawatt-hours in 2005.
http://energycentral. fileburst.com/EnergyBizOnline/ 2008-5-sep-oct/Tech_Frontier_ Solar_Space.pdf

15) ESA Advanced Concepts project summary page:
The big advantage of space based solar power collection is the 24h availability: unlike the situation on the surface of Earth, in geostationary orbit there is no night and the sun is never shadowed by clouds, rain or fog...We are therefore currently studying how e.g. space assets might best integrate into the management of future, complex energy grids with large components of renewable energy plants.
http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/ nrg/op/SPS/index.htm http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/ nrg/index.htm

16) The Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy (SSAFE) press release:
The Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy (SSAFE), a new organization advocating investment in space-based solar power technologies to address the planet’s future energy needs, was announced today at the National Press Club. The coalition of thirteen leading research organizations and space advocacy groups focused their inaugural event on the announcement of a new study of space-based solar power led by the National Security Space Office (NSSO)...The new Space Solar Alliance for Future Energy (SSAFE) will promote the findings of the NSSO-led study, and seek to communicate the benefits of the technology to business, government and the general public...The founding members of SSAFE are the National Space Society, Space Frontier Foundation, Space Power Association, Aerospace Technology Working Group, Marshall Institute, Moon Society, ShareSpace Foundation, Space Studies Institute, Spaceward Foundation, AIAA Space Colonization Technical Committee, ProSpace, Space Enterprise Council, and Space Generation Foundation.
http://ssafe.wordpress.com/

17) Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) Recommended Actions Paper, 2008

We judge this is not a NASA-centric aerospace technological issue. It is a national security issue, an energy security issue, an environmental solution, and an economic security issue, and, thus, needs to be addressed within a framework that includes all these dimensions, perspectives, and players, including considerable participation by private energy enterprise. The role of government should be to mature a limited number of components and processes to prove their economic and technical viability; then, step back, while continuing to support a strategy that addresses all elements of the problem. The government should lend support to this potential new industry, as done before for other fuel sources. While completing the maturing phase, the government program should work with industry to collaborate so that the private sector can pick up the costs and implement the SBSP system, if practical. This can be done in a sequence of steps with each step creating an increasing level of energy production to meet legitimate market demand profitably step by step, ultimately scaling to the level of provision of significant base load power in the U.S.http://www.atwg.org/ public/ATWG%20space-based% 20solar%20power.pdf

18) Taylor Dinerman in Space Review

In Washington lots of people have complained that the Obama Administration has so far not given the India-US relationship the attention it deserves... The one area in which there seems to be movement on, though, is a “renewable energy partnership”...Any analysis of the potential of terrestrial solar energy in India or elsewhere runs up against the awesome size of the future demand for power...they cannot by any stretch of the imagination fulfill the requirements of a huge growing economy like India’s. ...Only SSP, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year after year, can hope to meet this need....Fortunately both India and the US have space programs and technologies that could, if developed together and possibly with other interested nations such as Japan, bring SSP systems into service sometime late next decade or the early 2020s. With its commitment to develop a new low cost reusable spaceplane, the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is already working on one of the key technologies needed for an SSP system. Indian participation in both private and public SSP programs should be welcomed by the US. In the near term the new Indo-US renewable energy partnership would seem to be the right place to start this collaboration. Together the partners can identify what will be needed in the way of technological and scientific investments over the next decade in order to make SSP a reality. India has lots of talent that can be committed to this effort and so does the US. In fact, the kind of ambitious idealism that we saw at NASA during the Apollo years could be engendered by this goal. Safe, clean, abundant energy from the Sun is not an impossible dream. The technology has not been perfected and the need for new, low-cost Earth-to-orbit transportation systems is as urgent as ever, but there are no requirements for any scientific breakthroughs.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1389/1

Should India and the US cooperate on space solar power?

From: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1389/1
Should India and the US cooperate on space solar power?
by Taylor Dinerman
Monday, June 8, 2009

If the US has a serious medium-term need for a very large new source of clean energy, India needs it even more. While there is a lot of talk about terrestrial solar, wind, and geothermal power as alternatives to coal—which seems to be currently politically unacceptable—or nuclear—which has its own set of political problems but whose greatest drawback may simply be the length of time it takes to build new power plants—space solar power (SSP) may be the only alternative that could be made to work before the major global electricity demand crisis hits, around the year 2050.

In Washington lots of people have complained that the Obama Administration has so far not given the India-US relationship the attention it deserves. Others are waiting to see if this relatively new team is going to follow up on the progress made by both the Clinton and the George W. Bush Administrations in building a real friendship between the two democratic giants. The one area in which there seems to be movement on, though, is a “renewable energy partnership”.

From India’s standpoint the government does take the energy problem very seriously. While they connect it with the question of climate change, they have made it clear that they are not willing to inflict economic pain on their people in order to appease those in the West who are demanding that they cease their current drive to climb out of mass poverty in the name of the environment. Former External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made this clear when he spoke at the Asia Society in New York last year and said, “It is therefore completely one sided to target countries like India, whose emissions though modest are rising, but fail to bring to account those who have been responsible for more than 70% of the accumulated emissions in the atmosphere.”

Recognizing the potential weakness of a case based strictly on the question of climate change, Mukherjee was wise enough to add that “even if there were no climate change arguments, considerations of energy security alone would require a medium to long term strategy of implementing a strategic shift from fossil fuels to non fossil fuels.” He called for a “major R&D effort to develop applications that that can provide convenient, cost effective large scale applications of solar energy.”

Any analysis of the potential of terrestrial solar energy in India or elsewhere runs up against the awesome size of the future demand for power.

Photovoltaic panels on rooftops and solar water heaters all make excellent small-scale contributions to the solution, but they cannot by any stretch of the imagination fulfill the requirements of a huge growing economy like India’s. Only SSP, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year after year, can hope to meet this need.

Fortunately both India and the US have space programs and technologies that could, if developed together and possibly with other interested nations such as Japan, bring SSP systems into service sometime late next decade or the early 2020s. With its commitment to develop a new low cost reusable spaceplane, the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is already working on one of the key technologies needed for an SSP system.
Indian participation in both private and public SSP programs should be welcomed by the US. The US government should make an effort to facilitate this by helping with visas and work permits for qualified Indian scientists and engineers. Recent moves towards reforming the notorious International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) should include ensuring that SSP systems are covered by the Department of Commerce regulators rather than by the State Department, which has gained such a sorry reputation in this area.

In the near term the new Indo-US renewable energy partnership would seem to be the right place to start this collaboration. Together the partners can identify what will be needed in the way of technological and scientific investments over the next decade in order to make SSP a reality. India has lots of talent that can be committed to this effort and so does the US. In fact, the kind of ambitious idealism that we saw at NASA during the Apollo years could be engendered by this goal.

Safe, clean, abundant energy from the Sun is not an impossible dream. The technology has not been perfected and the need for new, low-cost Earth-to-orbit transportation systems is as urgent as ever, but there are no requirements for any scientific breakthroughs.

The Space Solar Power Study released by the US National Security Space Office (NSSO) in October 2007 found that since the 1977 “Reference” study, there had been:

a) Improvements in PV [photovoltaic] efficiency from about 10% (1970s) to more than 40% (2007);

b) Increases in robotics capabilities from simple tele-operated manipulators in a few degrees of freedom (1970s) to fully autonomous robotics with insect-class intelligence and 30–100 degrees of freedom (2007);

c) Increases in the efficiency of solid state devices from around 20% (1970s) to as much as 70%–90% (2007);

d) Improvements in materials for structures from simple aluminum (1970s) to advanced composites including nanotechnology composites (2007)


The 2007 NSSO study showed just how far the technology had come and why space solar power is now a more viable alternative for very large-scale power generation than ever before. India and the US are natural partners in the development of this technology and the opportunity provided by the planned renewable energy partnership is a perfect place to begin.

Comment by RG posted on this web site

This article is good news for many of us in India who, since 1990, have strongly advocated a global aerospace and energy mission with India and the US as start-up partners for an integrated SSP-RLV technology demonstrator R&D programme; followed later by full-scale SSP-RLV revenue earning missions.

The global electricity crisis expected in 2050 has already hit India. In India, while ISRO is focused on a TSTO approach to low cost access to space, the DRDO is not far behind with an airbreathing "aerobic" SSTO approach for safe, affordable space launch, conceived specifically for the global SSP mission.

Early 1990 SSP-RLV studies in India had brought out clearly that high RLV payload efficiency (10-15% as against Shuttle’s 1.5%) and SSP-relevant RLV design features were just as mission critical for the SSP mission as light weight high efficiency (25-30%) solar cells and SSP systems architecture integrated into the payload bay and orbit-transfer design at very early stages of the system-of-systems design.

I for one hope that President Obama's initiative to build a renewable energy partnership with India includes such an integrated SSP-RLV approach as well

India and Space Solar Power

from: http://epaper.sakaaltimes.com/ST/ST/2009/05/22/index.shtml (page 6)
Power-The Final Frontier
Could satellites in orbit be a source of future energy? Its possible.
Somewhere around 2015, more Indians will live in cities than rural areas, and the trend will continue until by 2030, more than 60% of Indians will live in cities. Cities need reliable power. By 2050, India will have gone from 1.2 Billion to 1.5 billion people, adding almost as many additional citizens as it had at Independence. To meet developmental goals by 2050, GOI plans require installed electrical capacity to grow by 11-fold, from 121 GW to 1350 GW, a 5.5% rate of growth (actual growth in 2006 was 7%). Fully 50% of current and future electrical supply is projected to come from coal. At 5.5% annual growth, India will completely exhaust its domestic coal supplies by 2063.
The global situation is equally challenging. By 2030 the world will have added another 2 billion people and total energy demand will have doubled (15TW to 30TW). Demand is likely to go as high as 55TW between 2050 and 2100. An energy system based on combustion of fossil fuels creates huge amounts of greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide. Leaders committed to stemming climate change would have to add 16 terrawatts of carbon-neutral energy to stabilize CO2 at four times pre-industrial levels, and 40 terrawatts to stabilize at twice pre-industrial levels. That is a lot of green energy! Also, and more worrying to some, sometime before mid-century, first oil, then gas, then coal will all peak in production. Unable to keep up with demand, traditional sources will first plateau, and then begin a steady decrease in global production. What will fill the gap?
Many look to terrestrial solar to fill the gap, and it will have a huge role to play. But although the amount of solar energy falling on the Earth far exceeding the needs of humanity, for the particular application of reliable, dispatchable, 24-hr electrical power, terrestrial solar faces many challenges, not the least of which is that any ground based power plant will spend half the time in night, producing nothing. In fact, terrestrial solar systems produce useful power less than 25% of the day.
A bold and different solution to tapping the suns energy, and one posed by former President Dr. APJ Kalam, and the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), and seconded by other private organizations in the United States, is the Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP).
In this concept, very large satellites, the largest every constructed, made up of kilometers of solar cells would collect the Sun’s energy where there is no night, and convert it to radio-waves to be beamed to special receiving antenna farms on the ground (called rectennas) about the size of a municipal airport. The energy is sent in the form of a low energy beam at about 1/6th the intensity of sunlight you would experience if you went for a sun-tan at the beach. But because it is a low-energy, non-ionizing wavelength, it is not as dangerous as sunlight with its high energy ultraviolet rays. At the rectenna, the energy is reconverted and sent via the existing electrical grid. Such satellites would necessitate a fleet of re-useable space planes, and as a consequence of economies of scale, reduce the cost of space access a hundred fold, enabling many other applications.
Space Solar Power is one of the very few renewable energy options that is both scalable to the levels we need (the Geostationary Belt is thought to be able to support enough satellites to produce 177 TW), and be able to provide 24-hr power (not just when the Sun shines or wind blows). It also appears to be the most benign of any of the major energy options. It produces no radioactive waste. Despite minor emissions and significant energy expenditure during manufacture and launch, the lifecycle CO2 emission of a Powersat is 60x less than coal, and has an energy payback period of a mere two years. Extensive Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests failed to show any significant biohazard for such a low energy beam. A rectenna is over 80% efficient at converting the beam to electricity. That means less than 20% of the incident energy is rejected to the biosphere as waste heat compared to greater than 50% for all other power sources. The rectenna also operates without the need for scarce water for cooling. High energy conversion efficiency means land used for the rectenna is much more productive than either ground solar or wind, conserving scarce land. Additionally, the rectenna is >80% transparent to sunlight, and stop 99% of the beam, meaning land underneath it can be used for agricultural and pastoral uses. Proponents feel that given these merits, Space Solar Power deserves its own development program.
Here is an interview as well from the Pune Mirror: http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=20090413200904130234463648ecfff86&sectxslt=&pageno=2
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