Space Solar Power
Well thanks to my friend SOWMYAN I got to know more about this beautiful technology and a latest trend. Let me get through this systematically:
IMPACT OF SSP ON THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
AND PRESENTATION OF SSP RESEARCH IN JAPAN
by Nobuyuki KAYA
University of Kobe (Japan)
| 1 – The concept of Space Solar Power is simple The photovoltaic arrays, the microwave transmitter and the large reflectors are launched into the geosynchronous orbit. The electric energy generated by the photovoltaic arrays on the SPS is converted to microwave, which is transmitted to the receiving antenna and supplied for the ground use. SSP systems will be able to supply more than 1 GW of electricity above to the Earth, which is equivalent to a basic nuclear power station.
There are three arguments to consider for the environment : . * One is the CO² emission from the Solar Power Satellite. The CO² emission is a very important factor to evaluate the Solar Power Satellite. These days, the greenhouse effect must be reduced to protect the Earth environment. * The second is the effect of the high power microwave onto the human bodies. High power microwave is radiated from the Solar Power Satellite. Everybody can associate the high power microwave with the microwave oven, and every time I gave lectures on the Solar Power Satellite, everybody asked me if birds flying through the microwave beam could be “Yakitori-ed” by the microwave just like by the microwave oven. We call the grilled birds “Yakitori”, but we should remember the high power microwave is much weaker than the microwave oven, and it cannot grill the flying birds. * The third point is interference of the high power microwave beam with ionospheric plasma and telecommunications. 2 – Research activities in Japan We have three space organizations in Japan, one is NASDA, another is ISAS and the last is USEF (Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer). NASDA and ISAS belong to the Ministry of Education, while USEF belongs to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). At the present, we have two independent studies on the Space Solar Power by USEF and NASDA. Concerning the research projects, we have many design projects, rocket experiments that I already mentioned, demonstrations on microwave power transmission, estimation of CO² emission and a test of the biological effects of high power microwaves. Concerning of the SPS concepts, we also have many proposals, the SPS-2000 strawman design by ISAS, and also USEF and NASDA concepts and our Sandwich SPS concepts. We have very active research on the development of the technologies and the environmental and economical assessments. Microwave power transmission is one of the essential technologies for realization of Space Solar Power. We have performed many experiments and demonstrations to develop the microwave power transmission technology. The first demonstration was an airplane flying by microwave energy transmitted from a car. We made a small radio-controlled model airplane. The car carried a high power microwave transmitter of 1 kW on the roof. The car followed the model airplane while transmitting microwave, with controlled beam direction using phased array antenna technology. The airplane succeeded in flying for 20 seconds with microwaves. The next demonstration was to transmit 10 kW high power microwave from the ground toward a small airship. The airship had two propellers to climb and change direction, which were driven by the microwave energy. The transmitter had a parabola antenna with a diameter of 3 m. The picture shows the receiving antennas and the airship driven by microwave power. We are planning a microwave power transmission demonstration on a very long distance in Hawaii, in Maui where there are very high mountains, and in the other big islands. Our plan is to transmit microwave from Mount Haleakala to Mauna Lea at a distance of 120 km, which is a quarter of the distance between the Low Earth Orbit and the ground. We believe this experiment will be of great value for future space power transmission experiments. 3 – In summary We believe the Solar Power Satellites are one of the very promising energy sources in the future. This recommendation was accepted by the UNISPACE III conference held by United Nation in 1999. As you know, Solar Power Satellites may supply very clean electricity anywhere and anytime in the world. We believe that international collaborations are essential and indispensable to realize the Solar Power Satellites, and we encourage concerned organizations, in the whole world, a) to pursue technical, economical and feasibility studies for SSP, b) to stimulate international cooperation and exchanges concerning SSP, c) to consider seriously SSP for a number of topics, for example in terms of health, environment, electromagnetic spectrum management and frequency allocation, etc… This was the latest trend. Now the interesting thing is that the entire process is going to depend upon a transmitter/solar radiation to DC converter is an object called RECTENNA. But our friend here was interested in using SYNTENNA. Now the thing about SYNTENNA is as followsA nantenna (nanoantenna) is a solar collection device based on rectifying antennas. The idea of using antennas to collect solar energy was first proposed by Robert L. Bailey in 1972.A nantenna is an electromagnetic collector designed to absorb specific wavelengths that are proportional to the size of the nantenna. Currently, Idaho National Laboratories has designed a nantenna to absorb wavelengths in the range of 3-15 μm. These wavelengths correspond to photon energies of 0.08-0.4 eV. Based on antenna theory, a nantenna can absorb any wavelength of light efficiently provided that the size of the nantenna is optimized for that specific wavelength. Ideally, nantennas would be used to absorb light at wavelengths between 0.4-1.6 μm because these wavelengths have higher energy than infrared (shorter wavelength) and make up about 85% of the solar radiation spectrumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantenna The noticeable thing here is that the Nantenna production uses only one system so far and that is ELECTRON BEAM LITHOGRAPHY which is a slow and expensive method and it appears to be a little unstable to consider the heat produced by the microwave, but once again my friend told me that the spectrum is gonna be around 2.5Ghz so it should be totally fine. Also check out the following videos |
Any updates or arguments are more than welcome researchers!!
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