Sbsp affirmative- arl lab- ndi 2011
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1AC Solvency ContentionSBSP is technologically feasible and can quickly become operational.Whitesides ’08 (Loretta Hidalgo, Staff Writer for Wired Science. “Researchers Beam ‘Space’ Solar Power in Hawaii”. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/visionary-beams/. September 12, 2008) AP The key to our energy future may be in space. A new long-range energy transmission experiment opens the possibility of sending solar energy from space to earth. Former NASA executive and physicist John Mankins captured solar energy from a mountain top in Maui and beamed it 92 miles to the main island of Hawaii. Tonight at 10 pm Discovery Channel will air an episode of Project Earth on the recent first-of-its-kind experiment. This long range demonstration of wireless power transmission was also a key step toward space-based solar power satellites. The team also beamed the power almost 100 times farther than NASA’s major 1970’s power transmission in the Mojave Desert in California. Although the amount of power sent, 20 watts, is barely enough to power a small compact fluorescent light bulb, and most of it was lost in transmission, the system was limited by the budget not the physics. If they had been able to afford more solar panels, more phased array transmitters and a better receivers (the one they had could only receive in the horizontal direction), Mankins claims they could do much better– possibly up to 64% efficiency. The Discovery Channel-sponsored experiment was executed with the support of scientists in Japan, Texas and California and showed that real progress could be made toward space-based solar power satellites in less than 5 months with less than $1 million. Their concept also uses mirrors to focus as much solar power as possible on the solar cells. The Discovery Channel’s teaser boasts that they were able to get five times more electricity than conventional solar cells. The high winds, high altitude helicopter monitoring, and the need to pack up the whole rig every night to honor the sacred ground on Haleakala will probably make for some great TV tonight. More exciting than the drama though is the implication for our energy future. The 120 gigawatts of solar power hitting the planet every second is more than all of human kind has used since the dawn of the industrial era. In space, you can tap into that without having to worry about losses in efficiency from the atmosphere, clouds or night. The space program seems like it could lead to a very tangible benefit, as tangible as global communications satellites and weather tracking satellites were to the previous generation. Image what living on the gulf coast would be like without our armada of weather satellites. "We need a short, mid and long range plan for energy," said Former Florida Congressman Paul Rancatore at a press conference this morning. Lately you’ve heard a lot of people talk about drilling, he added, "Don’t be focused on drilling down, focus on drilling up." Mankins says we can get a demonstration system in orbit in 6-7 years and could have a full scale operation system up in 10-15 years. It has the ring of being part of an, "Apollo-like program for energy." Most interestingly, the satellites could be very small and would work by being bundled together allowing economies of scale that we have not yet seen in space. U.S. factories could manufacture lots of identical satellite units and maybe even become a "net exporter of energy," claimed National Space Society Senior Vice President Mark Hopkins. When asked if he thought the future would be all space based solar power Mankins reasonably answered, "No, I think we need to maintain a portfolio of energy options. Using wind and other renewables in combination with space based solar power." And, the US is key- nobody can compete with NASA’s resources, tech, and knowledge Costa 10 (Rebecca, sociobiologist and expert in emerging trends in relationship to human evolution, global markets, and new technologies, former CEO of Silicon Valley start-up Dazai Advertising, Inc., “Can NASA Save a Struggling America?”, 10-1-10, http://cleantechnica.com/2010/11/01/can-nasa-save-struggling-america/) OPAs China takes the market for solar and wind technology right out of the hands of the DOE (just ask any venture capital firm specializing in clean tech – the writing is on the wall), NASA stands ready for a new mission: to leap-frog the worldwide hunt for renewable energy by initiating a full-scale space-based solar program. We have the technology, we have the resources, we have the need and the will – now all we need is for the Oval Office to run with it. No country has a space agency more knowledgeable, powerful or successful than NASA and the time has come for the United States to leverage this untapped asset. Forget investing in more nuclear power plants or trying to manufacture solar panels and wind generators more cheaply than China. When you can’t compete nose to nose there’s only one thing left to do: change the playing field. And in this case, America owns the field. SSP better than every other alternative. NSS 07 (National Space Society, Space Solar Power Limitless clean energy from space, About Space Solar Power (SSP, also known as Space-Based Solar Power, or SBSP):, http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/, grubbs) Advantages of Space Solar Power Unlike oil, gas, ethanol, and coal plants, space solar power does not emit greenhouse gases. Unlike coal and nuclear plants, space solar power does not compete for or depend upon increasingly scarce fresh water resources. Unlike bio-ethanol or bio-diesel, space solar power does not compete for increasingly valuable farm land or depend on natural-gas-derived fertilizer. Food can continue to be a major export instead of a fuel provider. Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power will not produce hazardous waste, which needs to be stored and guarded for hundreds of years. Unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants, space solar power is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in huge quantities. It works regardless of cloud cover, daylight, or wind speed. Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power does not provide easy targets for terrorists. Unlike coal and nuclear fuels, space solar power does not require environmentally problematic mining operations. Space solar power will provide true energy independence for the nations that develop it, eliminating a major source of national competition for limited Earth-based energy resources. Space solar power will not require dependence on unstable or hostile foreign oil providers to meet energy needs, enabling us to expend resources in other ways. Space solar power can be exported to virtually any place in the world, and its energy can be converted for local needs — such as manufacture of methanol for use in places like rural India where there are no electric power grids. Space solar power can also be used for desalination of sea water. Space solar power can take advantage of our current and historic investment in aerospace expertise to expand employment opportunities in solving the difficult problems of energy security and climate change. Space solar power can provide a market large enough to develop the low-cost space transportation system that is required for its deployment. This, in turn, will also bring the resources of the solar system within economic reach. 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