More on space solar power stations

As noted earlier, beaming solar power from space seems to becoming possible—finally. As any good reader of Clark, Asimov, and Heinlein could tell you fifty years ago, beaming solar energy from space is the way to go.  But, like flying cars, we’re still waiting for it to happen.

Aside from the technical details, the big problem with electricity from space is economics.  Launching stuff from Earth to orbit is expensive (and grossly wasteful), so it’s hard to get enough energy back to pay for the set up.  And, trust me, if an amateur hippy blogger knows this, then the energy developers know it.

But things seem to be moving on both technical and economic fronts, to the point where people are talking about first light in a decade or so.  (Bear in mind that a new terrestrial power plant can take a decade or more to come on line—so this is a notably “normal” time scale.)

For instance, Leonard David reports that technical research around the world has advanced rapidly, including the somewhat enigmatic USSF X37B space plane, which has been testing low cost solar to electric generation technology [1].  

The cost of launching to low Earth orbit has been dropping, as SpaceX’s sky pollution demonstrates. Underlying these clouds of annoying satellite is a mass production and launch capability that is bringing down the cost dramatically.

Launching from Earth is still absurdly expensive in energy if nothing else.  And in any case, it would be surprising if a large scale infrastructure can be built and maintained remotely from Earth.  It is likely that there will need to be a workforce in orbit, possibly a fairly large workforce.  That won’t be cheap or easy.

Leonard notes that orbital power generation will be an area of competition between China and whoever can compete with China.  US companies and the military would like to compete, but there isn’t much of an organized effort, and certainly no clear leadership.  Neither NASA nor the US Space Force seem to be up to the task.

If there is large scale, critical infrastructure and a workforce in orbit, there are definite geopolitical questions.  How is it governed and by whom?  And with many nations demonstrating weapons in orbit, how will infrastructure be protected, and by whom? 

Readers of Clark, Asimov, and Heinlein and their many literary descendants have imagined some of the ways this can happen.  It isn’t likely to be pretty. 

In fact, the coming of space energy could be halted by the first orbital war. It will be far easier to destroy than to build orbital power stations. And I haven’t heard any good ideas about how to prevent this from happening. 

Sigh.

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1. Leonard David, Space solar power’s time may finally be coming, in Space.com, November 3, 2021. https://www.space.com/space-solar-power-research-advances