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Issue 18: Contributors, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

List of Issue 18 Contributors

Sunsat Design Competition 2014-2015 Third Place Winner – Team Martian: Space Solar Power Test Bed, Jeremy Straub, Tristan Plante, Benjamin Kading, Alex Holland, Landon Klein, Jordan Forbord

Online Journal of Space Communication

We propose a four-stage plan to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of Space Solar Power (SSP) for use on Earth. Our project goal is to achieve Technology Readiness Level (TRL) by means of: 1) a test mission in low Earth orbit using a small spacecraft; 2) that will support a manned mission to Mars; 3) that includes a bent pipe experiment (power supplied from Earth, to a spacecraft and back to Earth), and 4) to complete system deployment.

The primary impediment to SSP implementation is thought to be the acceptance of the system by those on Earth who may be …

Sunsat Design Competition 2014-2015 First Place Winner – Team Cast: Multi-Rotary Joints Sps, Xinbin Hou, Meng Li, Lili Niu, Lu Zhou, Ying Chen, Zhengai Cheng, Haipeng Ji

Online Journal of Space Communication

Space Power Satellite (SPS) is a huge spacecraft designed to collect solar energy in space for supplying electric power to the electric grid on the ground. The SPS concept was first proposed by Dr. Peter Glaser in 1968.

Various studies on SPS in various countries have been produced over the past forty years. Today, there are multiple variations on this early concept, both in innovation and in optimization. Because of the huge size, immense mass and high power of these SPS installations, there are many technological difficulties.

Here, a new Multi-Rotary Joints SPS (MR-SPS) concept is proposed. The large solar …

Sunsat Design Competition 2013-2014 First Place Winner – Team Rajiv Gandhi University: Helioastra, Akhil Raj Kumar Kalapala, Krishna Bhavana Sivaraju

Online Journal of Space Communication

HelioAstra is a creative design and visualization of an advanced Space Solar Power system. Its concept is validated by a credible science and engineering approach and an innovative business plan.

The space and ground receiving segments are made up of high efficiency Fresnel lens concentrator quantum dot solar cells. The solar array in space is sized at 933 m2. It delivers 1 MW (1000 kW) of perennial, clean and eco-friendly solar electric power at the bus-bars on the ground.

A solid state laser system containing Neodymium doped Yttrium Aluminium garnet (Nd: Y3Al5O12) will accurately and efficiently transmit power. A ground …

Issue 17: Contributors, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

List of Issue 17 Contributors

A Us-India Power Exchange Towards A Space Power Grid, Brendan Dessanti, Nicholas Picon, Carlos Rios, Shaan Shah, Narayanan Komerath

Online Journal of Space Communication

The Space Power Grid (SPG) architecture
described in papers from our group since 2006, is an
evolutionary approach to realizing the global dream of
Space Solar Power (SSP). SPG first concentrates on helping
terrestrial power plants become viable, aligning with public
policy priorities. It enables a real -time power exchange
through Space to help locate new plants at ideal but remote
sites, smooth supply fluctuations, reach high-valued
markets, and achieve baseload status. With retail cost kept
to moderate levels, a constellation grows in 17 years to 100
power relay satellites at 2000 km sun-synchronous and
equatorial orbits and 250 terrestrial …

From Uranium Enrichment To Renewable Energy: Conversion Of The Us-Doe’S Former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (Ports) In Piketon, Ohio, Into A Clean Energy Production Facility Within A Decade, Don Flournoy, Shmuel Roth, Mohammad Ala-Uddin

Online Journal of Space Communication

The large-scale energy production projects described here, of which the
Portsmouth Solar Power Production site at Piketon Ohio is the illustrative
example, are chosen to describe how multi-megawatt quantities of “baseload”
renewable electrical power can be reliably generated from terrestrial solar farms.
Also to be shown are the steps to be taken in making these energy resources
simultaneously available to local and global power grids, 24-hours-a-day 12-
months-a-year.
This paper focuses attention on The U.S. Department Of Energy’s former
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS), a Cold War-era uranium
enrichment plant located on a secure 3,700+ acres in a rural area …

From Uranium Enrichment To Renewable Energy, Harold Bon, Solomon Brown, Michael Cisneros, Kent Engel, Tyler Goldberg, Matt Kissel, Alexa Krivoniak, Brandon Lutz, Zach Reese, Amanda Roberts, Colin Stonerook, Zoe Zeszut, Anthony Zoccola

Online Journal of Space Communication

The goal of this Science/Engineering visualization is to show how gigawatt quantities of renewable energy can be generated at former nuclear processing sites as they are repurposed into industrial scale electrical power generation stations. The breakthrough product of this research is the design of an integrated terrestrial solar/space energy receiving station that will produce “baseload” electricity 24 hours a day.

This research focuses attention on a Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility located on 3,700 acres of land in a rural area of SE Ohio. This site is judged to be suitable for research leading to the first-ever combination ground-based and …

Space Solar Power With Sunsynchronous Orbits, Michael Blohm, Alan Guy, Kyle Perkins, Adam Roades, Samantha Williams

Online Journal of Space Communication

The basic problem being addressed here is the high initial cost of solar power satellite (SPS) systems. The cost is higher for GEO orbits because of the large solar array and transmitter sizes required from that distance, and the expense of lifting such a mass into the higher orbits. Aperture size is proportional to the distance the power is beamed; thus transmitter apertures can be smaller when nearer to Earth.

Decreasing the distance energy must be beamed through space means that the powersat need not be so large, or as expensive. Implementation of sunsynchronous sunsats will likely be a more …

Millimeter Wave Space Power Grid, Brendan Dessanti, Nicholas Picon, Carlos Rios, Shaan Shah

Online Journal of Space Communication

The Space Power Grid (SPG) architecture illustrated in this visualization represents an evolutionary approach to realizing the global dream of Space Solar Power (SSP). The Georgia Tech approach to SPG concentrates on helping terrestrial power plants become viable, aligning with public policy priorities. It enables a real-time power exchange through space to help locate new plants at ideal but remote sites, smooth supply fluctuations, reach high-valued markets, and achieve baseload status. Over time, this approach will enable other architectures and applications of space solar power.

Advisor: Dr. Narayanan Komerath, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology; Atlanta, …

Multi-Nation Wpt Demonstration Experiments, Max Alvarez, Harold Bon, Jason Butler, Jimmy Clark, Kent Engle, Ben Felix, Tyler Goldberg, Colin Mercer, Shelby Roades, Zoe Seszut, Michael Stephens, Jiexiong Zhang, Anthony Zoccola, Chinar Patel, Ben Leon, Scott Bennet, Roger Lascorz, Oscar Pierre, Somil Shah, Rahim Panjawani, Nicole Dowling, Natasha Barbely

Online Journal of Space Communication

A project originating with Georgia Institute of Technology is described in which the International Space Station (ISS) serves as an experimental platform for the relay of energy from space to earth. The multi-nation test will feature the transmission of small amounts of solar-generated electric power from the ISS using millimeter waves, for the purposes of collecting atmospheric propagation data and testing technologies for power beaming, aiming, and reception. This initiative represents an early first-step towards installation of a global Space Solar Power Grid emphasizing international collaboration, synergy with the terrestrial energy industry and with retail power beaming markets. The technical …

Sunbeams From Space Mirrors Feeding Solar Farms On The Ground At Dusk And Dawn, Tyler Goldberg, Zoe Zeszut, Steve Larkin, Colin Mercer, Shelby Roades, Jimmy Clark, Anthony Zoccola, Logan Hayes

Online Journal of Space Communication

For 40 years, the systems designers of space solar power have given their greatest attention to wireless power as microwave transmission from space to earth. The approach taken in this application is to place space satellites in lower sunsyncronous orbits for the purpose of gathering and focusing sun’s rays into a beam of reflected sunlight. The simple idea and application of this design is to extend the solar day of terrestrial solar farms, thereby increasing solar production capacity to 60 percent and reducing solar electricity costs to under 6 cents/kWh by delivering sunlight to a given location some 14 (rather …

Creative Visualization Of Space Solar Power, Steve Bonahoom, Stephen Buchannan, Garrett Clem, Connie Nemec, Jacqueline Deavenport, S. Phanuthep, Victor Sherrick, Jason Showalter, Jessica Staub, Michael Stephens, Douglas Trein, David Young, Joey Zhang

Online Journal of Space Communication

Electricity is one of the most flexible, cost effective and non-polluting sources of power at the point of use. Energy from Space will be key to achieving and sustaining universal access to this form of power, since all known energy supplies on Earth will be insufficient to keep up with projected world demand for electricity

About 80% of our current energy supply is in the form of fossil fuels. Greater diversification and augmentation of energy sources is needed. To protect our planet, our long-term goal must be to find alternative energy supplies that are clean, renewable, affordable, and available to …

Issue 16: Contributors, Don Flournoy, Ralph Nansen

Online Journal of Space Communication

Contributors to Issue 16

China Walks The Us-India Space Solar Power Dream, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Rahul Prakash

Online Journal of Space Communication

While India and the US make pledges about potential collaboration on space, others walk those promises and potentials. In the India-US context, space has remained a potential area of cooperation for the last decade or so whereas China, which has studied the Indo-US joint communications carefully, has made fast progress on space-based solar power (SBSP), in terms of devoting financial and human resources into the project. The need of the hour is for democracies like India, US and may be even Japan to come together, structure large collaborations around space and capture the political space in this regard. The political …

Why Not Space Solar Power?, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

The 2010 U.S. National Space Policy, which supports a robust and competitive commercial space sector, is good news for those of us working to design and launch the new types of satellites that will collect solar energy in space and deliver it to Earth as a nonpolluting source of electrical power.

Sky’S No Limit: Space-Based Solar Power, The Next Major Step In The Indo-Us Strategic Partnership, Peter A. Garretson

Online Journal of Space Communication

IDSA Occassional Paper No. 9 2010

This paper provides a policymaker's overview of a highly scalable, revolutionary, renewable energy technology, Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP), and evaluates it utility within the context of the Indo-US strategic partnership. After providing an overview of the concept and its significance to the compelling problems of sustainable growth, economic development, energy security and climate change, it evaluates the utility of the concept in the context of respective Indian and US political context and energy-climate trajectories. The paper concludes that a bilateral initiative to develop Space-Based Solar Power is highly consistent with the objectives of the …

The Spaceplane Equation, Raghavan Gopalaswami

Online Journal of Space Communication

Revenue earning space missions for deployment of space solar power satellites are economically competitive only when launch costs are in the region of $100-200 / kg in orbit. Nearly one half the capital cost of a solar power station is attributed to space transportation. To meet the objective of safe, affordable space transportation, an abundance of reusable space vehicle design concepts and programs emerged world-over, from 1985 to the present day. All these have been either abandoned or sub-optimally supported. Their designs emerged by the application of the ideal rocket equation derived in 1903 by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. It had served …

Vision For Producing Fresh Water Using Space Power, W. Kent Tobiska

Online Journal of Space Communication

An escalating climate crisis is stressing the Earth's environment. One significantly affected area is the global water infrastructure that includes hydropower, flood defense, drainage, and irrigation systems. The effect of adverse climate change on freshwater systems aggravates population growth and weakens economic conditions. In the western U.S., for example, reduced water supplies plus increased demand are likely to provoke more interstate and urban-rural competition for over-allocated water resources. Seawater desalination has existed for decades as a proven technology for supplying water in coastal areas; however, desalination processes are energy intensive and this has reduced their widespread use. It is noted …

Legal Challenges Facing Solar Power Satellites, Kiantar Betancourt

Online Journal of Space Communication

This paper addresses some important legal elements that will be involved in implementation of solar power satellites drawing down energy from the sun, a process commonly called space-based solar power (SBSP). This paper outlines the advantages of SBSP and briefly reviews its history and limited development until today. The paper’s important contribution is to describe the current regime of international space law. It explains specific ways international regulations help to create a supportive environment for launching, maintenance and removal of solar power satellites, while offering suggestions for future improvements to this regime.

The Sunsat Act - Transforming Our Energy, Economy And Environment, Darel Preble

Online Journal of Space Communication

Our global economy depends on low cost energy. In reaction to peaking oil prices, our economy is "in a shambles." We must rebuild our energy supply. Many energy alternatives have been explored and subsidized since the Arab Oil embargo shock of 1973, yet our oil, gas and energy dependency has grown. Our energy security is declining. Rebuilding our primary energy supply is hard. Fortunately, technology has opened the door to a clean new baseload energy player, Space Solar Power (SSP). The difference between communication satellites (comsats) now in use and the power satellites (sunsats) we need, is that sunsats would …

Alternative Orbits: A New Space Solar Power Reference Design, Royce Jones

Online Journal of Space Communication

This paper offers a new space solar power reference design based on an elliptical 3-Hour sub-Molniya orbit. Most studies of space-based solar power (SBSP) systems to date have assumed that satellite stationing and photovoltaic (PV) solar energy conversion will take place in geostationary orbit (GEO). This paper argues that GEO/PV systems are not the most feasible solutions for SBSP, not technically and not economically.

Thirty six thousand kilometers above earth is a logical destination for a number of reasons, but that orbit is already largely committed. What is more, this great height and the mass and number of space solar …

Solar Power Satellite Development: Advances In Modularity And Mechanical Systems, W. Keith Belvin, John T. Dorsey, Judith J. Watson

Online Journal of Space Communication

Space solar power satellites require innovative concepts in order to achieve economically and technically feasible designs. The mass and volume constraints of current and planned launch vehicles necessitate highly efficient structural systems be developed. In addition, modularity and in-space deployment will be enabling design attributes. This paper reviews the current challenges of launching and building very large space systems. A building block approach is proposed in order to achieve near-term solar power satellite risk reduction while promoting the necessary long-term technology advances. Promising mechanical systems technologies anticipated in the coming decades including modularity, material systems, structural concepts, and in-space operations …

Low Cost Access To Space Is Key To Solar Power Satellite Deployment, Ralph Nansen

Online Journal of Space Communication

Even though the concept of Solar Power Satellites (SPS) was first proposed in 1968, development has not happened because of the massive initial investment in infrastructure required. The principal infrastructure constraint is in the transportation segment. When the space transportation costs are sufficiently low, we can count on the cost of energy from space to be as low as hydroelectric energy. There is no limit to how much energy can be generated; as long as the sun shines, a clean source of energy is available in space. With improved systems of transport, Solar Power Satellites can be the world's next …

Why Has Sps R&D Received So Little Funding?, Karen Cramer Shea

Online Journal of Space Communication

Solar Power Satellite (SPS) research and development has received little funding over the 40 years since the concept was first introduced. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have each hosted and then cancelled space solar power programs because they didn't fit their mandates. It is time to broaden our search for agencies to fund SPS R&D, to find an agency that deals with both space and energy. Another problem faced by space-based solar power advocates is that launch costs are too high for SPS to be affordable. The launch market is currently …

Sunsats: The Next Generation Of Comsats, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

No solar power satellites (SunSats) are yet in operation. While all space-based satellites host some type of solar collector for the energy needed to power and control them, no satellites are in orbit today for the primary purpose of gathering energy from the sun and delivering it to earth. Because an abundant and sustainable new source of energy is desperately needed on earth and the current level of technological development will now permit it, a huge new satellite sector is about to emerge relaying energy from space to the ground where it will be used as electricity.

The logical path …

Sustaining India's Economic Growth, Raghavan Gopalaswami

Online Journal of Space Communication

Depleting fossil fuel reserves and the tangible impact of climate change have mandated nations to review national energy-mix policies. The Government of India's target of 7% GDP growth rate will require 1,476 GW installed power capacity by 2052. But historical constraints since 1951 on growth of power capacity (like land acquisition, water, fuel supply chains and silting of dams) have limited power capacity growth in India to a maximum 4GW/year. Should these historical constraints continue into the future as "business-as-usual" scenarios, just 472 GW would have been realized by 2052, effectively slowing India's GDP growth rate to 3.5% per annum. …

Solar Power Satellites Research In China, Ji Gao, Xinbin Hou, Li Wang

Online Journal of Space Communication

In its long-term vision, the responsibility for ensuring China's food safety for its huge population, meeting its international obligations for environmental protection and providing the structure for its energy needs have determined that the direction of future development of low-carbon energy sources cannot be to sacrifice the "inner" earth. Thus, the state has decided that power coming from outside of the earth, such as solar power and development of other space energy resources, is to be China's future direction.

Space based solar power (SBSP), and the development of solar power satellites (SPS) to facilitate renewable energy production, is one of …

Global Warming In Perspective Understanding Climate Change In A World Of Contradictory Information, John K. Strickland Jr.

Online Journal of Space Communication

This article attempts to answer some fundamental global warming (GW) questions in as clear and balanced a way as possible. It touches on the current media and political discussion of the topic, an understanding of which has become integral to understanding the topic itself. This discussion is presented in light of the frequent use of the global warming crisis as an argument against all uses and sources of energy, clean or dirty, by rich and poor. The extremely large untapped energy source represented by Space Solar Power is offered as a potential long-term solution.

Energy Costs Eliminated By Satellite System, Joleroy Gauger

Online Journal of Space Communication

Successfully implementing a Solar Power Satellite Program will take a multi-discipline, multi-national, geopolitical effort. Planning for that level of complexity must begin now. This article gives the principal reasons for going to space for "free power," and seeks to illustrate some of that complexity. Solar energy is "free", just like the water in a hydroelectric system. There is no cost for fuel.

The sun delivers energy to earth at the rate of 1.37 kilowatts per square meter during daylight hours. This amounts to 174 petawatts (one petawatt is 10 to the fifteenth power). About 89 petawatts reach the earth's surface. …