Energy Matters

太空电力 March 30, 2015

That’s a lot of paper to crunch on that CRT!

Once again the undead topic of solar power satellites has raised its hand and flagged down the hoards of space enthusiasts over on Slashdot (thanks for the stats bump everyone!).

A post entitled Chinese Scientists Plan Solar Power Station In Space might lead you to falsely conclude that some actual work is taking place. A slightly more accurate title can be found if you click through to the linked article, Chinese scientists mull power station in space. And if one takes the time to actually read the article in question, you might conclude the title should read Retired Chinese rocket engineer gets some free press.

Harsh? Maybe. The person in the article is Wang Xiji, formerly of China’s space development agency and best known as the lead designer on the Long March 1, China’s first space booster. He indirectly launched their first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1, in 1970. As is always the case with these stories, the real motivation quickly becomes evident when you consider quotes like “we need a cheap heavy-lift launch vehicle”.

Xiji is an astonishing 93 years old, and clearly hale. I should be so lucky! And if age really does translate into wisdom (we should all be so lucky) then clearly my feelings on space power have to be wrong. But in this case, I’m going to chalk it up to age before beauty.

With friends like these… March 21, 2013

I can’t believe I missed this… Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, was giving a talk on, well, stuff, when someone asked him about space based solar power. His response?

“You’d have to convert photon to electron to photon back to electron. What’s the conversion rate?” he says, getting riled up for the first time during his talk. “Stab that bloody thing in the heart!”

What makes this most amusing is that Musk’s name is continually dropped as the way that space based solar power will become economically attractive. His rockets, it’s claimed, points to a future where SPS’s are economically possible. But they don’t, and even he dismisses the possibility.

So the power companies don’t want it, the solar power industry doesn’t, people looking to save outer space think it’s terrible, and even the people making the rockets they would buy think it’s dumb. That’s pretty much the royal flush.

The Maury Equation, redux March 17, 2012

Ouch!

It seems that every time a space-based solar power supporter reads my post on The Maury Equation, they pick one point of the many and try to attack the entire argument on that. That point normally has to do with launch costs, which isn’t the real argument at all.

So, let’s make this simple:

A solar cell in space will deliver less energy to the grid than the same cell on Earth. (more…)

The Maury Equation June 21, 2011

I’m claiming my 15 microseconds of fame right… now! The Maury Equation of the Economics of Solar Power demonstrates that the price of space based power will never be competitive. I intend to prove this, below.

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