Sps supplement Rough Draft-endi2011 Alpharetta 2011 / Boyce, Doshi, Hermansen, Ma, Pirani

SPS Solves – Feasible

Currently the United States relies on fossil fuels to generate electrical power. The United States acquires fossil fuels from both domestic sources and imports. Scientific predictions indicate a “sharp decline in [fossil fuel] availability over the next 40 years.” 1 As the world population increases, and natural resources to produce energy decrease, alternative methods to produce sustainable, environmental friendly, cost effective energy are required. One solution to the lack of renewable energy resources is solar power satellites. A solar power satellite collects energy from the sun and beams that energy to a receiving antenna, which converts the energy into electricity. Peter Glaser first proposed solar power satellites in the late 60s. During the energy crises in the 70s, the government took a hard look at them. The studies generated by this inquiry essentially reported that solar power satellites were technologically possible but their cost and launch requirements were not. Fifteen years later NASA conducted a study to determine if anything had changed. The study concluded that costs were still high but they were not as high as originally predicted and that there were no technological showstoppers. Utility companies and many other nations are taking a close look at solar power satellites. Not only are they looking at them as sources of power on Earth but as sources of power for satellites to reduce their size and launch costs.

Johnathan Coopersmith historian of technology 10 (AIP Conference Proceedings “Solar Power Satellites: Creating the Market for Beamed Energy Propulsion, May 6, 2010 -- Volume 1230, pp. 103-110, http://link.aip.org/link/?APCPCS/1230/103/1) Herm

Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) has great potential to supply baseload electric power to Earth with minimum environmental damage. The tempting promise of gigawatts of electricity, harvested from kilometer-wide arrays of solar cells in geosynchronous orbit and beamed by microwave to receiving stations on earth, was technologically too ambitious when first proposed by Peter Glaser in 1968 [10]. Interest in SBSP has grown in recent years due to technological advances and growing concern about providing future baseload electricity in environmentally friendly and economically feasible ways [11-15]. SBSP technology has matured greatly since first studied in the 1970s. Advances in solar cells, microwave transmission, and construction techniques in space have made SBSP much more attractive technically. The most recent major study, by the National Space Security Office (NSSO) of the American Department of Defense in 2007, concluded that a one GW solar power station could be built in geosynchronous orbit [16]. Growing interest in SBSP is reflected by papers like the Naval Research Laboratory’s 2008 SBSP study [17], websites [18], and conferences like Space Canada International Symposium on Solar Energy from Space [19]. The International Academy of Astronautics will complete an exhaustive study in 2010 on the main technological options and provide a roadmap forward [20].
SPS is a feasible prospect that solves – network of small satellites

Basant V. Sagar & Ryan M. McLinko [(Department of Mathematics, MIT; SM Candidate (2011), Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Space Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 10 Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, “Space-based solar power generation using a distributed network of satellites and methods for efficient space power transmission.” International Conference on Space Information Technology 2009. April 2010 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/57581 Herm]

Space-based solar power (SSP) generation is being touted as a solution to our ever-increasing energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels. Satellites in Earth’s orbit can capture solar energy through photovoltaic cells and transmit that power to ground based stations. Solar cells in orbit are not hindered by weather, clouds, or night. The energy generated by this process is clean and pollution-free. Although the concept of space-based solar power was initially proposed nearly 40 years ago, the level of technology in photovoltaics, power transmission, materials, and efficient satellite design has finally reached a level of maturity that makes solar power from space a feasible prospect. Furthermore, new strategies in methods for solar energy acquisition and transmission can lead to simplifications in design, reductions in cost and reduced risk. The key architecture needed for such a campaign to be feasible is the use of a distributed network of small satellites to collect solar energy and beam it back to Earth. Most designs for space-based solar power involve launching monolithic self-assembling structures into orbit, which are some of the most troublesome aspects of this concept. As is shown below, the key drivers in this design are the cost of launching satellites in to space and the cost of photovoltaic cells. Both of these costs can be reduced further in the long-run by invoking quantities of scale and learning effects, but remain high cost barriers at this point.