On 2023-07-14, a one day conference was held as the European Space Agency’s ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on the topic “Challenges and Monetization of Power in Space”, discussing the feasibility of delivering power to the Earth from satellites in geostationary orbit which convert solar power (available without interruption at 1.3 kilowatts per square metre) and transmit it to the Earth via a microwave beam.
Space-based solar power was proposed in the 1970s by Peter Glaser (who received U.S. Patent 3,781,647 [PDF] on the concept) and studied over the years by a variety of organisations including NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Japanese space agency (JAXA). Early studies concluded the cost of launching the required mass from Earth and the infrastructure needed to assemble the large and massive satellites in space would be prohibitive, but with the dramatic drop in launch costs and prospects for further reduction if fully-reusable heavy-lift launchers such as SpaceX’s Starship become available, plus the ability to robotically assemble and service large structures in space made from identical mass-produced modules (see John Mankins’ 2014 book, The Case for Space Solar Power, for examples), has caused the concept to be revisited, motivated in part by the realisation among those who have mastered fifth grade arithmetic that politicans’ and bureaucrats’ announced goal of “net zero by 2050” are utter fantasy without a new, large-scale, source of base load electrical power.
Here is the agenda for the conference, which was sponsored by the SpaceTech programme of the Technical University of Graz, Austria. Click to enlarge the image.
The entire conference was recorded in a video of 7 hours and 18 minutes. I have cued the video in this post to start at the keynote presentation, “The compelling need for Space Based Solar Power and the ESA Solaris Initiative” which starts at the 22 minute mark and is an excellent introduction to the concept for those unfamiliar with it. Here are direct links to the individual talks, which will open in a separate YouTube window.
- 00:00:00 1- Dietmar Pilz - ESA Technical Director
- 00:09:00 2- Franz Teschl - Academic Programme Lead for SpaceTech
- 00:13:30 3- Wiley Larson - Director of SpaceTech
- 00:22:00 4- Sanjay Vijendran - Keynote: The compelling need for Space Based Solar Power and the ESA Solaris Initiative
- 01:22:15 5- Mike Snead - Sustainably powering the world with Space Based Solar Power
- 01:44:45 6- James Cornish - Space Based Solar Power - A future Source of Energy for Europe
- 02:04:50 7- Namrata Goswami - Space Based Solar Power and Space Policy: Where do Nations Stand?
- 02:39:00 8- Peter Garettson - The Scale and Possibility of Space Based Solar Power
- 03:20:45 9- Andreas Vogler & Arthur Woods - Greater Earth Energy Synergies
- 03:56:45 10- Piotr Marek Kaminski - Airbus Ambition for Power Beaming
- 04:19:45 11- Vivek Babu - Perovskite Solar Cells for Space Applications
- 04:41:40 12- Matthias Krieger - The Dilemma and Pathway to Large Scale Solar Manufacturing
- 05:07:33 13- Robin Nelen - Paraloon, Electrifying Earth, Air and Orbit. An introduction to the Paraloon company, concept and vision
- 05:28:20 14- Ed Tate - Space Based Solar Power: Physics, Technology, and Economics at Virtus Solis
- 05:59:00 15- Alejandro Salado - A modern Re-interpretation of Systems Engineering
- 06:38:05 16 - Nathan Uitenbroek & Nuno Sanos - SpaceTech 2022…2023 Central Case Project Presentation Summary: Lunar Spark - Space Based Power Satellites
- 07:07:40 - 17 - Panel Session - Key Takeaways from the day
- 07:18:46 - end