10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet

From: http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-06/10-audacious-ideas-save-planet

10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet Popular Science June 13, 2008

To rescue the Earth, we need bold engineering ideas that go beyond simple recycling

Making a dent in the climate crisis is going to take more than solar panels and recycled toilet paper. Scientists are finding ever more creative ways (pig pee! DIY tornadoes! mini nuclear reactors!) to clean up the Earth
Beaming Electricity from Space
The Vision Launch giant solar panels into orbit and send limitless clean energy back to Earth
The Plan By 2030, Japan hopes to pull its power from the heavens instead of from polluting coal plants. The idea is to send satellites into geostationary orbit above the equator, where they will unfurl 1.5-mile-long solar arrays and soak up the sun 24 hours a day. Transmitters mounted on the satellites would convert the solar energy into microwave energy and beam it down to terrestrial receiving stations. Equipped with massive antennas measuring two miles across, each station would produce one gigawatt of electricity—enough to power 500,000 homes. That’s twice as much as a typical coal-fired plant, and without any of the greenhouse emissions.
Putting solar panels in space has one obvious advantage: It’s never cloudy 22,000 miles up. On average, there’s 8 to 10 times as much sunlight available in space as there is on Earth, where atmosphere and weather get in the way. Now, with satellite launch costs dropping (about five thousand dollars per pound today, versus $12,000 per pound a decade ago) and energy bills rising (already double what they were in 2005), researchers are finally warming to the idea.
Later this year, in fact, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to test the idea on the ground, blasting a microwave beam some 170 feet to a 6.5-foot-wide rectenna, a type of receiver that converts microwaves into DC electricity. Not as glamorous as beaming rays from space, but it’s a vital first step.
Potential Uh-Ohs One frightful but improbable scenario is that the microwave beam misses the receiving antenna and fries something on Earth’s surface. Like a village. To mitigate that risk, JAXA scientists are developing an automated detection system that turns off the microwave beam if the satellite drifts out of line.
ETA JAXA aims to launch its first energy-beaming satellite into orbit by 2013, with a network of powersats that feed energy directly into the grid to follow by 2030.—Rena Marie Pacella

45 New Planets! Phoenix confirms water on Mars and Genetic Material on Meteorite!

Researchers discover forty five new planets.
USA Today (6/17, Vergano) reports, "Nearby stars probably abound with planets only slightly larger than our own," according to researchers from of Switzerland's University of Geneva Observatory, which "reported the discovery of 45 of these 'super-Earth" planets" through two studies. However, "[a]ll of the planets, including a solar system of three super-Earths reported by team leader Michel Mayor of Switzerland's University of Geneva Observatory, orbit too close to their stars to harbor life." Still, said Mayor, "what is exciting is that we can say about one-third of stars have these kind of low-mass planets."
The New York Times (6/17, Overbye) notes that, according to Mayor, "[t]heories of planet formation...hold that smaller planets like super-Earths and Neptunes should be numerous." And, some astronomers say, "the new results indicated that when their instruments got sensitive enough to detect even smaller planets, such planets would be there to be found." The Times noted that "Dr. Mayor and his team discovered the first so-called exoplanet orbiting a regular star, known as Pegasi 51, in 1995." Since that time, "some 270 exoplanets have been discovered, many of them like the original, so-called hot Jupiters in lethal scorching embraces of their stars."

The AFP (6/17) adds, "The recent batch of exoplanets were all spotted with the High-Accuracy Radial-Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a 3.6-meter telescope and spectograph perched atop La Scilla mountain at the southern edge of Chile's Atacama Desert." The instrument "has uncovered 45 super-Earths since it began operation in 2004."
Reuters (6/17, Fox) points out that none of the planets "can be imaged directly at such distances but can be spotted indirectly using radio waves or, in the case of HARPS, spectrographic measurements. As a planet orbits, it makes the star wobble very slightly and this can be measured." Stephane Udry, a contributing researcher, said, "With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph...we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth's mass." The AP (6/17, Borenstein), Space.com (6/16, Bryner), National Geographic (6/16, Minard), the BBC (6/17) and the Tech Herald (6/17, Bowden) also report the story.

Earth-size planets give some researchers hope for finding alien life.
On the front page of its Science Times section, the New York Times (6/24, F1, Angier) continues reporting on the Geneva Observatory's recent finding "that many Sun-size stars in our galaxy are girdled with Earth-size planets." Although the 45 planets discovered are likely too close to their stars to harbor life, "researchers are confident that other rocky planets remain to be found at Earthier distances from their suns." Planetary theorist Sara Seager noted, "As soon as astronomers started looking for low-mass planets, they found a whole bunch, and that's a real breakthrough." As a result, some researchers "suspect that life abounds" in the universe, "at least of the microbial kind." The Times notes that "astronomers have high hopes for the Kepler spacecraft to be launched in February." The spacecraft will search "for 'tiny drops in brightness,' possible signs of a planet transiting across [a] distant Sun's face," focusing on "100,000 stars for four years." With this information, scientists "can pick out the places most worthy of follow-up probes."

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25350155/

Astronomers on verge of finding Earth's twin
Planet hunters say doppelgänger is almost surely hiding in our galaxy

Planet hunters say it's just a matter of time before they lasso Earth's twin, which almost surely is hiding somewhere in our star-studded galaxy.
Momentum is building: Just last week, astronomers announced they had discovered three super-Earths — worlds more massive than ours but small enough to most likely be rocky — orbiting a single star. And dozens of other worlds suspected of having masses in that same range were found around other stars.
"Being able to find three Earth-mass planets around a single star really makes the point that not only may many stars have one Earth, but they may very well have a couple of Earths," said Alan Boss, a planet formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C.

Since the early 1990s, when the first planets outside of our solar system were detected orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257, astronomers have identified nearly 300 such worlds. However, most of them are gas giants called hot Jupiters that orbit close to their stars because, simply, they are easier to find.
"So far we've found Jupiters and Saturns, and now our technology is becoming good enough to detect planets smaller, more like the size of Uranus and Neptune, and even smaller," said one of the top planet hunters on this world, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley....With upgrades in spectrometers and digital cameras attached to telescopes, astronomers' eyes have become more sensitive to relatively tiny stellar wobbles (measured by changes in certain wavelengths of light) and dips in starlight from ever smaller planets.
The discovery of super-Earths announced last week reflects this technological leap. ...The ultimate goal of planet-hunting projects is to find Earth twins.
"We are looking for twins of the Earth, analogs that walk and talk and smell like our own Earth," Marcy said during a telephone interview. He is currently looking for super-Earths using the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. ..."I suspect there are Earth-like planets with lakes and rivers and waterfalls and deep glacial gorges and that are spectacularly beautiful," Marcy said.
Finding a planet ...The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled for launch in 2013, could do just that. ...But first things first. "There's no doubt that other Earths exist, simply due to the sheer vast numbers of other stars and galaxies in our universe," Marcy said. "There's a deeper question — how common are Earth-like planets? Are Earth-like planets a dime a dozen, or are they quite rare, quirky precious planets that are one in a thousand or one in a million?"

NASA Phoenix Lander finds Water Ice! (From NSS Downlink)

Scientists have confirmed that the substance from just beneath the surface of Mars, dug up by the Phoenix lander, is water ice. This find has scientists excited about other big discoveries that are possible in the upcoming weeks.Phoenix has the capability to analyze the soil and ice to see whether Mars has ever been accommodating for microbial life. Project scientists will look for evidence of water in liquid form and organic compounds that could have provided chemical building blocks and energy for life.

From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080613/sc_afp/spacesciencebiochemistrybiology_080613180404

PARIS (AFP) - Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday.

European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor fragment, are truly extraterrestrial. Previous studies had suggested that the space rocks, which hit Earth some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact. Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher at Imperial College London. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is another key part of the genetic coding that makes up our bodies. These molecules would also have been essential to the still-mysterious alchemy that somehow gave rise, some four billion years ago, to life itself. "We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite, which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago," Martins told AFP in an interview. Competing theories suggest that nucleobases were synthesised closer to home, but Martins counters that the atmospheric conditions of early Earth would have rendered that process difficult or impossible. A team of European and US scientists showed that the two types of molecules in the Australian meteorite contained a heavy form of carbon -- carbon 13 -- which could only have been formed in space. "We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding, enabling them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations," Martins said. If so, this would have been the start of an evolutionary process leading over billions of years to all the flora and fauna -- including human beings -- in existence today. The study, published in Earth Planetary Science Letters, also has implications for life on other planets. "Because meteorities represent leftover materials from the formation of the solar system, the key components of life -- including nucleobases -- could be widespread in the cosmos," said co-author Mark Sephton, also at Imperial College London. "As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said. Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a genetic base pair with another molecule, adenine. Xanthine is not directly part of RNA or DNA, but participates in a series of chemical reactions inside the RNA of cells. The two types of nucleobases and the ratio of light-to-heavy carbon molecules were identified through gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, technologies that were not available during earlier analyses of the now-famous meteorite. Even so, said Martins, the process was extremely laborious and time-consuming, one reason it had not be carried out up to now by other scientists.

House Passes HR 6063

HR 6063 contained some significant language about Planetary Defense...BRAVO!:

TITLE VIII--NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS
SEC. 801. IN GENERAL.
The Congress reaffirms the policy direction established in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-155) for NASA to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter. NASA's Near-Earth Object program activities will also provide benefits to NASA's scientific and exploration activities.
SEC. 802. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Near-Earth objects pose a serious and credible threat to humankind, as many scientists believe that a major asteroid or comet was responsible for the mass extinction of the majority of the Earth's species, including the dinosaurs, nearly 65,000,000 years ago.
(2) Several such near-Earth objects have only been discovered within days of the objects' closest approach to Earth and recent discoveries of such large objects indicate that many large near-Earth objects remain undiscovered.
(3) Asteroid and comet collisions rank as one of the most costly natural disasters that can occur.
(4) The time needed to eliminate or mitigate the threat of a collision of a potentially hazardous near-Earth object with Earth is measured in decades.
(5) Unlike earthquakes and hurricanes, asteroids and comets can provide adequate collision information, enabling the United States to include both asteroid-collision and comet-collision disaster recovery and disaster avoidance in its public-safety structure.
(6) Basic information is needed for technical and policy decisionmaking for the United States to create a comprehensive program in order to be ready to eliminate and mitigate the serious and credible threats to humankind posed by potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids and comets.
(7) As a first step to eliminate and to mitigate the risk of such collisions, situation and decision analysis processes, as well as procedures and system resources, must be in place well before a collision threat becomes known.
SEC. 803. REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION.
The Administrator shall issue requests for information on--
(1) a low-cost space mission with the purpose of rendezvousing with, attaching a tracking device, and characterizing the Apophis asteroid, which scientists estimate will in 2029 pass at a distance from Earth that is closer than geostationary satellites; and
(2) a medium-sized space mission with the purpose of detecting near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter.
SEC. 804. ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICY.
Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of OSTP shall--
(1) develop a policy for notifying Federal agencies and relevant emergency response institutions of an impending near-Earth object threat, if near term public safety is at stake; and
(2) recommend a Federal agency or agencies to be responsible for protecting the Nation from a near-Earth object that is anticipated to collide with Earth and implementing a deflection campaign, in consultation with international bodies, should one be required.
SEC. 805. PLANETARY RADAR CAPABILITY.
The Administrator shall maintain a planetary radar that is, at minimum, comparable to the capability provided through the NASA Deep Space Network Goldstone facility.
SEC. 806. ARECIBO OBSERVATORY.
Congress reiterates its support for the use of the Arecibo Observatory for NASA-funded near-Earth object-related activities. The Administrator shall ensure the availability of the Arecibo Observatory's planetary radar to support these activities until the National Academies' review of NASA's approach for the survey and deflection of near-Earth objects, including a determination of the role of Arecibo, that was directed to be undertaken by the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act, is completed.
SEC. 807. INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES.
It is the sense of Congress that, since an estimated 25,000 asteroids of concern have yet to be discovered and monitored, the United States should seek to obtain commitments for cooperation from other nations with significant resources for contributing to a thorough and timely search for such objects and an identification of their characteristics
SEC. 1106. INNOVATION PRIZES.
(a) In General- Prizes can play a useful role in encouraging innovation in the development of technologies and products that can assist NASA in its aeronautics and space activities, and the use of such prizes by NASA should be encouraged.
(b) Amendments- Section 314 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 is amended--
(1) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
`(b) Topics- In selecting topics for prize competitions, the Administrator shall consult widely both within and outside the Federal Government, and may empanel advisory committees. The Administrator shall give consideration to prize goals such as the demonstration of the ability to provide energy to the lunar surface from space-based solar power systems, demonstration of innovative near-Earth object survey and deflection strategies, and innovative approaches to improving the safety and efficiency of aviation systems.'; and
(2) in subsection (i)(4) by striking `$10,000,000' and inserting `$50,000,000'.

Iowa State takes Leadership in Planetary Defense

Kudo's to Iowa State for taking leadership!

From: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/iowa-state-esta.html

Asteroid deflection is one of those topics that draws an eclectic mix of serious NASA engineers, professors, and crazy people.
To help sort through decades of scientific research and a century of science fiction, Iowa State university professor Bong Wie is establishing the first-ever Asteroid Deflection Research Center.
The Center will look at all available technologies that could be deployed to some day keep a space rock from slamming into the Earth and ending civilization.
"As of 2008, there is no consensus among professionals which approach or technology can be actually used when we have to use it," Wie told Wired.com. "So, therefore, we created this center to bring the experts from around the world together to [undertake] open-minded technical study."
Scientists believe the Earth has been hit several times by asteroids large enough to radically alter the planet. Sixty-five million years ago, a 6-mile-wide asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula creating an enormous crater and probably leading to the extinction of most life on Earth at the time, including the dinosaurs. More recently, an 50-meter asteroid exploded just above the ground in Siberia with the force of 500 atomic bombs, leveling trees for miles around. Given the high stakes, Wie considers developing a strategy to push an asteroid off a collision path with Earth to be an underaddressed problem.
"No one is taking any responsibility for this problem," Wie said.

Space Solar Caballeros get Space Pioneer Award

THE 2008 SPACE PIONEER AWARD
FOR SPACE DEVELOPMENT
PRESENTED BY
THE NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY TO

THE CABALLEROS:
Col Mike Hornitschek, USAF
Col M. V. “Coyote” Smith, USAF
Lt Col Peter Garretson, USAF
LtCol Paul Damphousse, USMC

With Support from
Maj Gen James Armor (Ret) of the
National Security Space Office

AT THE 27th INTERNATIONAL
SPACE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 28-JUNE 1, 2008

This Award is presented in recognition that the Caballeros, working with the National Security Space Office, were instrumental in creating the initial concept and momentum that resulted in the Space Based Solar Power Architecture Study, the SBSPAS symposium, and subsequent media and other events. This process has re-invigorated the concept of Space Solar Power and created a wave of favorable media attention which has not been equaled since the original Solar Power Satellite studies from 1977-1980, and which is still continuing. The Caballeros and the NSS gratefully acknowledge the assistance of many other individuals whose efforts were critical in creating a continuing process that once again is attempting to lead America and the World toward a source of abundant, clean and inexpensive energy for Humanity.

We need an Expose!

A couple days ago, someone asked me, why, with so much good -- almost nightly -- education about the Planetary Defense problem, why was there so little being done?

I think it is because it has stayed in the Science arena, and people have not yet placed it in the Policy arena, and in particular the Security arena. At ISDC, SFF's Charles Miller characterized the current lack of clear responsiblity as irresponsible and unsupportable. The panel (which featured only NASA and no DoD representatives) declined to provide a clear opinion. Another questioner made the point that if someone from the DoD said, "Mr. President, there is a 1 in 300 chance that Al Qaeda will detonate a nuke somehwere on Earth."--you'd bet they'd get more than $4 million a year to prevent it. Dr. Pascal Lee, who was also on the panel suggested the President declare them WMD's (wanderers of mass destruction).

So what we need is NOT another edutainment program on comet or asteroid strikes, we need a 20/20 or 60 minutes expose:

STRATCOM, you have responsibility for WMD & Space, every day you see the satelite feeds, you are the primary customer for the Space Situational Awareness network, do you meen to say you don't have a scenario?

NORTHCOM & DoHS & FEMA, you do domestic emergency planning; you watch the same TV programs, do you meen to tell us you have no such contingency plan?

AIR FORCE, you purport to protect America in space, what have / are you doing to mitigate a potential threat? Isn't this within your competencies? Aren't you ashamed to have NASA fillin in for your Space Situational Awareness?

Air Force Space Command, you run wargames, tell me why you have never run one on this topic? Is the protection of the American people not a concern? You've had decades of internal advocates from SpaceCast2020 to AF2025 to today, why haven't you stepped up to it?

OSD & Joint Staff, you write trends and shocks, you see the same TV we do, why is this not included in your shocks?

Missile Defense Command & DTRA, you have responsibility for incoming threats and WMD problems, you mean you have no contingency plans?

National Security Space Office, you coordinate across all these agencies, why have you not provided a recommendation or initiated an architecture study? You know about the statistics, that there are about 5415 NEOs of which some 743 are a kilometer or larger that would cause global devastation; you know that 953 of those are potentially hazardous, and that if we were to do a proper survey, there are probably 400,000 NEOs of 45 m in diameter and that 30 m is large enough to penetrate the atmosphere and decimate a city the size of DC, and that we barely know where 90% of the asteroids 1km are, and haven't a clue about those smaller than 140m. And that is the easy problem. Comets, which can come much faster with less warning must also be considered, with some 1,000 known Kuiper Belt Objects, and perhaps 50,000-100,000 more, and then at least 1,000 planetary bodies in the Oort Cloud, some as larger or larger then the Earth and perhaps a Trillion Comets.

Dr. Bong Wie of University of Iowa really puts things in perspective in one of his briefings pointed out:
A 300m asteroid would have a mass of 40Billion kg.
That is roughly 100,000 Boeing 747s traveling at a speed of 10 km/s, imparting an Impact damage = 10 million times that of 9/11!

NASA Authorization language

Now this is a significant improvement! It appears that now both the National Research Council (NRC) and the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will be looking into who should get the mission. Let's hope they get it right (it is a Defense mission, not an Exploration Mission.

NEO News (06/04/08) NASA Authorization language

U.S. House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee Approves NASA Authorization Act (H.R. 6063), with Specific Comments on NEOs

H.R. 6063, introduced by Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Mark Udall (D-CO), authorizes appropriations for NASA's activities - science, aeronautics, exploration, education, space operations, inspector general, cross-agency support programs - for Fiscal Year 2009. FY 2009 funding for NASA is $20.21 billion. This bipartisan legislation was originally cosponsored by the Science and Technology Committee's Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Tom Feeney (R-FL). "H.R. 6063 will help point NASA towards a more productive and sustainable future," stated Udall. This is proposed language; the NASA Authorization Bill has not been voted into law.

The following draft language in the bill relates to NEOs: (http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=27997)TITLE VIII--NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS
SEC. 801. IN GENERAL.
The Congress reaffirms the policy direction established in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-155) for NASA to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter. NASA's Near-Earth Object program activities will also provide benefits to NASA's scientific and exploration activities.
SEC. 802. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:(1) Near-Earth objects pose a serious and credible threat to humankind, as many scientists believe that a major asteroid or comet was responsible for the mass extinction of the majority of the Earth's species, including the dinosaurs, nearly 65,000,000 years ago.(2) Several such near-Earth objects have only been discovered within days of the objects' closest approach to Earth and recent discoveries of such large objects indicate that many large near-Earth objects remain undiscovered.(3) Asteroid and comet collisions rank as one of the most costly natural disasters that can occur.(4) The time needed to eliminate or mitigate the threat of a collision of a potentially hazardous near-Earth object with Earth is measured in decades.(5) Unlike earthquakes and hurricanes, asteroids and comets can provide adequate collision information, enabling the United States to include both asteroid-collision and comet-collision disaster recovery and disaster avoidance in its public-safety structure.(6) Basic information is needed for technical and policy decision making for the United States to create a comprehensive program in order to be ready to eliminate and mitigate the serious and credible threats to humankind posed by potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids and comets.(7) As a first step to eliminate and to mitigate the risk of such collisions, situation and decision analysis processes, as well as procedures and system resources, must be in place well before a collision threat becomes known.
SEC. 803. REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION.The Administrator shall issue requests for information on-(1) a low-cost space mission with the purpose of rendezvousing with and characterizing the Apophis asteroid, which scientists estimate will in 2029 pass at a distance from Earth that is closer than geostationary satellites; and(2) a medium-sized space mission with the purpose of detecting near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter.
SEC. 804. ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICY.
The Director of OSTP shall--(1) develop a policy for notifying Federal agencies and relevant emergency response institutions of an impending near-Earth object threat, if near term public safety is at stake; and(2) recommend a Federal agency or agencies to be responsible for protecting the Nation from a near-Earth object that is anticipated to collide with Earth and implementing a deflection campaign, in consultation with international bodies, should one be required.
SEC. 805. PLANETARY RADAR CAPABILITY.
The Administrator shall maintain a planetary radar that is, at minimum, comparable to the capability provided through the NASA Deep Space Network Goldstone facility.
SEC. 806. ARECIBO OBSERVATORY.
Congress reiterates its support for the use of the Arecibo Observatory for NASA-funded near-Earth object-related activities. The Administrator shall ensure the availability of the Arecibo Observatory's planetary radar to support these activities until the National Academies' review of NASA's approach for the survey and deflection of near-Earth objects, including a determination of the role of Arecibo, that was directed to be undertaken by the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act, is completed.

How to harvest solar power? Beam it down from space!

From: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/30/space.solar/index.html

Yet Mehta has another solution for India's chronic electricity shortage, one that does not involve power plants on the ground but instead massive sun-gathering satellites in geosynchronous orbits 22,000 miles in the sky.
The satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted to electricity and transferred to power grids. And because in high Earth orbit, satellites are unaffected by the earth's shadow virtually 365 days a year, the floating power plants could provide round-the-clock clean, renewable electricity.

"The conditions are ripe for something to happen on space solar power," said Charles Miller, a director of the Space Frontier Foundation, a group promoting public access to space. "The environment is perfect for a new start."
Skyrocketing oil prices, a heightened awareness of climate change and worries about natural resource depletion have recently prompted a renewed interest in beaming extraterrestrial energy back to Earth, Miller explained.
And so has a 2007 report released by the Pentagon's National Security Space Office, encouraging the U.S. government to spearhead the development of space power systems.
"A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today," the report said.

Mini-planet almost fits Earth’s profile

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24935469/

Artist's conception of the newly discovered planet MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb orbiting a brown-dwarf "star" that's only 6 percent as massive as our sun. Theory suggests that the three-Earth-mass planet is made primarily of rock and ice. Observational and theoretical studies of brown dwarfs reveal that they have a magenta color due to absorption by elements such as sodium and potassium in their atmospheres.

There's a new extrasolar planet on the block: a mini-orb likely covered with a deep ocean. And it takes the record for the lowest-mass exoplanet to orbit a normal star, astrophysicists announced Monday. The li'l planet — weighing in at three times Earth's mass ­— grabs the lightweight title from a five-Earth-mass planet just announced in April. The super-Earth is called MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, after its host star MOA-2007-BLG-192L, which is located about 3,000 light-years from Earth. (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 5.88 trillion miles — 9.46 trillion kilometers.)

Corot mission identifies two exoplanets

Aviation Week (5/28, Taverna) reported, "The Corot planet-finding mission has identified two more exoplanets and an unknown celestial object," according to mission managers. Corot "also detected extremely faint signals of another exoplanet that appears to be 1.7 times the radius of Earth. If confirmed, it would be the first rocky exoplanet to be found." Aviation Week noted, "Discovery of earthlike planets is the primary focus of the Corot mission, which was launched in December 2006."