DRAFT: A proposed system of prizes to launch Space Solar Power

New paper, just a DRAFT!!!!  Helpful comments and corrections welcome.   Abstract:

A system of prizes to develop space solar power (SSP) is proposed.  If successful, a one or two
billion dollar investment could kick-start a vigorous SSP industry, which in turn could provide
humanity with essentially unlimited quantities of clean electrical energy.  If unsuccessful, the money
is returned to its source.  The prize is structured to subsidize the construction of nine SSP satellites
by at least three different entrants using different designs.  The prize is aimed at developing small
SSP systems delivering a few tens of megawatts to utilities on the ground.  Under some reasonable
assumptions, the prize money is sufficient to make one or perhaps two of the satellites profitable and
provide a significant subsidy to the other seven.  Once small SSP systems have been successfully
developed, producing large systems that can make a real difference to global energy production will
be much easier. While $2 billion is a great deal of money, should this effort be successful, it is
reasonable to hope that Earth’s energy and greenhouse gas problems could be solved.


For the full paper see http://space.alglobus.net/papers/SSPprizes2011.pdf

SpaceWork's First Revenue Satellite

 SpaceWorks Commercial posted online a recent Space Solar Power (SSP) economic analysis it presented at the 28th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science (ISTS) in Japan. The analysis focused on what SpaceWorks refers to as the SSP First Revenue Satellite (FRS), an operational demonstrator in the MW class for SSP. 

Reference:

Charania, A., DePasquale, D., Olds, J. R., "Operational Demonstration of Space Solar Power (SSP): Economic Analysis of a First Revenue Satellite (FRS)," ISTS2011-q-01, 28th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science (ISTS), Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, June 5-12, 2011.

Paper:

http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/ISTS2011-q-01.pdf

Presentation:

http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/ISTS2011-q-01_present.pdf

New Link:

http://www.sei.aero/com/news/newsindex.php?id=26


Abstract:
Niche markets (military installations, developing nation remote power, etc.) may be potential markets where Space Solar Power (SSP) satellites may be economically viable, given certain government support and Earth-to-Orbit launch cost assumptions. An operational demonstrator could be one approach for those markets. This paper examines such a concept, referred to by the authors as the SSP First Revenue Satellite (FRS). The FRS would be a mid-power (1-20 MW of delivered power) space-to-ground demonstrator of SSP. The purpose would be two-fold, prove the end-to-end technical capability and then demonstrate operations over multiple years. The FRS system would be turned over to commercial operators for public/private service. This is deemed to be a more feasible and useful mid-scale demonstration of SSP. This would be a hybrid public-private system consisting of low number of satellite systems. A notional SSP architecture is taken as a case study for this examination. Economic analysis is performed to look at the output prices such a venture would charge based upon various financing options. The objective of this analysis is to determine whether the FRS can be a commercially viable pathway for a SSP demonstrator.

Totally Pathetic Indo-US joint Civil Space Statement

Are you kidding? The political leaders of both nations have put a priority on space cooperation, and this pathetic, weak, anemic statement is the best their respective civil space agencies can come up with?

- Oooo, I'm soooo excited about potential cooperation in sharing data, and "possibilities" of joint experiements, and "willinness to discuss".
- I'm sure children in both continents are jumping up and down, unable to contain their excitement at a potential future career in data sharing and GNSS compatibility

The U.S. – India Joint Space Working Group on Civil Space Cooperation met in July 2011 in Bangalore. Building on the successful Chandrayan-1 lunar mission, NASA and ISRO reviewed potential areas for future cooperation in earth observation, space exploration, space sciences and satellite navigation. Both sides agreed for early finalization three new implementing arrangements for sharing satellite data on oceans and global weather patterns. Recognising the research opportunities available on the International Space Station, both sides agreed to explore the possibilities of joint experiments. NASA reiterated its willingness to discuss potential cooperation with ISRO on human spaceflight activities. The two sides also agreed to expand upon previous work in the area of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) with the goal of promoting compatibility and interoperability between the U.S. Global Positioning System, India’s Navigation systems, and those of other countries.

Compare this pathetic, anemic failure to the ambitious vision of Dr. Rajagopalan in an earlier post, or the exciting initiative posted by the NSS-Kalam initiative.

Are we really funding people to fly halfway around the world to discuss discussing potential cooperation, with no goals, no deadlines, no resourcing, no vision?

This is the best that can be offered up when the two nations are having a strategic dialog?

US-India Strategic Dialogue: "Sky's No Limit" for Space

From: http://www.orfonline.org/cms/sites/orfonline/modules/analysis/AnalysisDetail.html?cmaid=24899&mmacmaid=24900

US-India Strategic Dialogue: "Sky's No Limit" for Space
Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan
18 July 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be arriving in Delhi on Monday (July 18) for the second U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. This strategic dialogue is crucial because there is an increasing concern that the U.S.-India partnership is beginning to lose its way. In Washington, there is significant disappointment on a number of issues including India’s nuclear liabilities bill, which for all practical purposes prevents the US nuclear industry from participating in India’s civilian nuclear sector; and the Indian decision to reject two American competitors from the Indian Air Force’s lucrative Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal. In Delhi, on the other hand, there is unhappiness at what is seen as American pressure for greater defence cooperation. These issues suggest that all is not well with US-India relations.

With the nuclear deal over, New Delhi and Washington need another big idea to power the relationship over the next several years. Without such a political initiative at the highest levels, U.S.-India relations threaten once again to wallow in bureaucratic inertia. Space cooperation has the potential for being that next big idea.

Nearly two years back, Karl F. Inderfurth, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Statefor South Asia Affairs, and C. Raja Mohan, prominent Indian foreign policy analyst, proposed in the pages of the Financial Times, London that space cooperation be kept at the heart of U.S.-India relations.

But though space cooperation has been an important item in the agenda between the two countries with almost all important bilateral documents proposing such cooperation, there has been little tangible movement on the issue. With the removal of most U.S. high-technology sanctions on Indian agencies, particularly on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), there are few obstacles to serious cooperation in this area.

Nevertheless, bland sentiments about cooperation are unlikely to bear fruit without tangible proposals. To begin with, the two governments should consider establishing a US-India 21st Century Commercial Space Initiative or a Space Knowledge Initiative, along the lines of the US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative and the US-India Clean Energy Initiative.

Space cooperation between the two countries has even greater potential. Space cooperation is likely to be much more visible than either energy or agriculture cooperation. And unlike the US-India nuclear deal, space cooperation is likely to garner domestic support in both countries and is likely to be less controversial internationally.

India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma, recently highlighted the successful US-India partnership in the area of clean energy. The initiative was also a successful model of public-private sector partnership, with the two governments investing $25 million each and the private sector investing $50 million.

There are a number of areas of space cooperation that Washington and Delhi can explore. While space exploration purely for the sake of science might be important, it is likely to be more sustainable when linked to building a strategic industry. US and India should focus building the underlying knowledge and skill base which can address many areas: space access, in-space maneuver, space logistics, space infrastructure, on-orbit servicing, developing new markets such as space tourism, on-orbit construction and manufacture, terrestrial resource mapping, space resource and energy utilization, space traffic management and active debris mitigation, among others.

India-U.S. space cooperation also has a potential for being much more broad-based than other areas such as nuclear or defense cooperation. Space cooperation can generate stakeholders across a wide-spectrum, from the national space agencies on both sides (NASA and ISRO), education and science and technology departments to universities as well as private commercial enterprises in both countries. In fact, space cooperation has the potential to go far beyond entities like ISRO and catalyse new strategic industries in space.

The two countries can elevate three strategic objectives through the space cooperation initiative: first, it provides an exciting investment area of space in the Indo-U.S. strategic partnership for Indian and American leaders to work on, which addresses STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), jobs and high-tech cooperation in space. Second, it can catapult space-industrialisation and commercial space from the edge of the Indian and American national space paradigm to its forefront. Third, garner further resources for our own STEM in developing a future strategic industry.

Such an initiative could generate active participation and cooperation from public and private entities such as ANTRIX Corporation (India’s commercial wing of ISRO), the Chamber of Indian Industries (CII), Indo-U.S. S&T Fund, FICCI, USIBC, educational institutions such as IIT, IIM, IISc and on the U.S. side, FAA/SAT universities, USRA, NIRA, NASA/OCT Commercial, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Space Enterprise Institute among others.

U.S.-India partnership has never been short of promise, but realising the potential needs grand vision. Much of the progress over the last decade has been the result of precisely such a vision in the form of the nuclear deal. The need now is for another grand vision that would ensure that the progress made so far is not jeopardised.

I thank Lt. Col. Peter Garretson of the US Air Force for collaborating and formulating many of the ideas in this analysis.

(Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan is a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation. She was at the National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India, from 2003 to 2007)

To Command the Stars

An excellent essay. Someone in Air Force Space Command who "gets it"
http://www.schriever.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070906-081.pdf

Luna Ring and Solarbird

Read: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/lunar-energy-soulution-japans-crisis/story?id=14051246

Shimizu Corp Lunar Solar Ring

Go Green NASA!

An article from Space News (http://spacenews.com/commentaries/110620-green-nasa.html ) saying "NASA Go Green!":

And after conducting extensive study of solar power satellites that have the potential for beaming power to Earth 24 hours a day, and after acknowledging the feasibility of the concept, why did NASA stop short of at least a demonstration system, so that commercial enterprises could take over as they have with communications satellites?

Here also is an interesting idea from India on Space Solar Power for disaster relief:

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?725954

There is a new pro-SBSP group: Solar High at http://solarhigh.org/
"The Solar High Study Group is a small team of senior engineers and policy analysts who are working to make space-based solar power a reality in the United States and around the world."

Fairly Substantial SBSP discussion on "To the Point"

Listen to discussion on Space Solar Power (in depth starting at 34:29):
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp110708does_the_last_shuttl

NASA Ames bought a 1.2 MW, 110 GHz gyrotron for testing beamed energy propulsion

Remarks Keith Henson on the significance of the purchase:
"But if you have 9000 m/s exhaust velocity, which can be done with hydrogen heated with microwaves or lasers, then the mass ratio is a little less than 3.  So vehicle and payload can be 36% of takeoff mass.  If half vehicle and half payload, that's 18% each.  So a 300 ton vehicle with a dry mass of 54 tons could put 54 tons in LEO...The falling cost of microwave power and laser power makes these options possible.

Planetary Defense Conference

Bruce Betts reports from the Planetary Defense Conference in Romania

Day1: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003026/

75% of one-kilometer-diameter asteroids have been discovered and 85% of those larger than a kilometer, a total of 914 objects as of May 1, 2011. About 25% of Apophis-size (about 300 meter) asteroids have been found, and smaller percentages of smaller-sized ones. 

Day2: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003028/

IR astronomy and was used in part to find NEOs -- and it sure was successful. From a non-optimized orbit, NEO-WISE, as they called the NEO part of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, discovered 132 near Earth asteroids.

Anders Sandberg on Mitigating Asteroid Risk

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/sandberg20110513

A Space-Based Near-Earth Object Survey Telescope in Support of Human Exploration, Solar System Science, and Planetary Defense

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110011348_2011011214.pdf

Find out more here:

http://www.pdc2011.org/

Another Step Closer to Terra-forming Mars

From: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mro-co2-ice&sc=emailfriend
Radar soundings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have identified huge dry ice deposits under the Red Planet's surface totaling roughly 10,000 cubic kilometers. ..More importantly to planetary scientists, that dry ice—solid carbon dioxide—is enough to change the climate of Mars. If all that CO2 were released as gas, as it may well have been in the past, it would nearly double the mass of the Martian atmosphere, increasing pressures across the planet and making Mars more hospitable to patches of liquidwater.

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.

NASA April Fools:
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/armageddon-nasa-april-fool.php

See Astronaut Tom Jone's presentation on Planetary Defense and NEO Exploration here:
http://www.slideshare.net/astrosociety/aas-goddard-201103310945jones

Planetary Defense Conference To Consider Response to Earth-Impacting Threat

http://alcohol.44cent.com/en/planetary-defense-conference-to-consider-response-to-earth-impacting-threat/

 In May, hundreds of international experts will meet to consider how best to react should planet Earth ever be threatened by a large object. The 2011 Planetary Defence Conference includes top experts from space organisations worldwide.

The 2011 Planetary Defence Conference (PDC2011) is the fourth in a series of global meetings that bring together scientists, space experts, industry, academics and policy-makers to share research results and consider options for a global response should an Earth-impacting threat be discovered......

Step 1 in Astronauts-to-Asteroid Mission: Pick the Right Space Rock

http://www.space.com/11189-nasa-asteroid-choice-astronauts-deep-space.html

Japan Nuclear Disaster Provides Impetus for Space Based Solar power

http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-radical-alternative-to-nuclear-reactors

Why is planetary defense important:

Secure World's Rationale:
http://secure-world-88ju.imulus-client.com/our-focus/planetary-defense

Rocky Exoplanet Discovered!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2041683,00.html
a huge step closer. Called Kepler-10b, it's just 40% larger than Earth — the smallest planet yet found outside our solar system. Not only that: unlike the vast majority of the 500-odd exoplanets found to date, and unlike Jupiter and Neptune, Kepler-10b isn't just a huge ball of gas or ice. Like Earth, it's made of rock. "This is a historic discovery," said Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley,

Mining the Moon

Mining the Moon for Water:
Excerpt from FULL STORY at:
http://www.space.com/10619-mining-moon-water-bill-stone-110114.html


The moon has water, and lots of it. Permanently shadowed craters at both poles have likely been trapping and accumulating water ice for billions of years, recent research has shown.  
These concentrated stores are a precious resource that could revolutionize space travel, some scientists and entrepreneurs have argued. Lunar ice can be mined, split into its component hydrogen and oxygen and transformed into rocket fuel, which could then be sold to spacecraft from orbiting "gas stations."  Such an arrangement could spur a wave of space travel and exploration, the argument goes, since spaceships wouldn't have to lug all the fuel they need from Earth.  One firm that wants to make this happen is Shackleton Energy Co. SEC is serious; it plans to launch robotic scouting missions to the lunar poles within four years, and hopes to be selling propellant in orbit by the end of the decade.
...Our analysis shows it is about 15 times cheaper to launch any mass from the moon to LEO than from the Earth.  Lower-cost propellants in space will transform access to and invigorate operations in space. Importantly, our business model indicates this can be realistically done within the decade. Launch providers will now be able to use smaller, cheaper launch vehicles that do not carry excess fuel. They can now get that extra fuel from our orbiting "gas stations." What is very encouraging is that current space treaties and law permit commercial operations on the moon, so the opportunity is wide open to anyone.
...Initially, a crew of 6-12 operators will be trained and deployed to the LEO stations to fine-tune all required operations. When risk reduction and training is complete, an initial crew of 6-8 will descend to the lunar surface mining area and set up camp....Initially, the lunar operating base will be relatively small to accommodate about 6-8 crew for 24/7 operations. The startup crew may have to spend a year on the moon. Operations crews will subsequently be staged at 6-month intervals for normal operations, but we will have frequent transit flights back and forth to LEO/moon for resupply, contingency and medical issues.  We will employ maximum use of inflatable structures for the habitat and modular high-power nuclear power supplies for all power operations (heating and electricity). The operations concept calls for human-tended robots to do most of the mining, transportation and processing functions with minimal EVAs [extra-vehicular activity]. The base camp will be expanded incrementally to accommodate increased operations as fuel demand increases. We envision providing at least four very large fuel transfers per year to LEO....Preliminary estimates are about $25 billion to reach the point of positive ROI following initial operations in LEO...With a global surface area of over 35 million square kilometers [13.5 million square miles], with proven reserves of over a billion tonnes of water ice, and with the likelihood that initial surface resource processing will be done in relatively small, localized crater areas, it is unlikely that lunar return and resource harvesting will even be detectable to other lunar explorers, scientists or users...To put this in a more practical perspective, the lunar north pole water alone (from LRO radar signature) is enough to launch one shuttle equivalent per day for over 2,300 years. But this is, literally, only the tip of the "iceberg."If the LCROSS data are correct and the ice zone extends as far as the area between each of the poles to a circle at 80 degrees latitude, there is likely to be enough ice on the moon to launch, again at one-per-day, an equivalent shuttle launch for 250 million years.  The moon is a large body with lots of room and lots of resources. There is space enough for everybody on the moon for whatever purposes they envision.