EcoFactor: This technology aims at providing clean and renewable energy on a large scale.
Space solar power could be the best solution to our long-term energy needs. Just imagine not having to set aside large pieces of land for solar power fields but instead, use the vastness of space to set up solar power stations and then have the power sent wirelessly back to earth. It might have all been science fiction a decade ago but John C. Mankins, an expert on solar power and former manager of the NASA Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program, is to announce on Friday that wireless long distance solar-power transmission is possible. An experiment conducted by NASA showed that wireless power transmission was possible between 2 Hawaiian Islands at a distance of 148km apart; that’s a little over the distance that the atmosphere covers! This piece of news has gotten everyone in the scientific community excited and it will be featured in an hour-long special on Friday, Sept. 12 on the Discovery Channel as part of Discovery Project Earth.
Dark Side:
While space based solar power (or SSP) may look promising, it will definitely be more than a few years before this technology actually makes it into proper commercial use. Transmitting power over land is one thing but transmitting it across the atmosphere is quite another. The ionosphere, the electrically charged portion of the atmosphere, will be a significant barrier to this progress and not the only one either. Let’s hope this can be resolved soon so that we can enjoy clean and constant power from space.
Via: Nasa Watch
