Space Solar Power Program Final Report
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-· Space Solar Power Program Final Report International Space University Kitakyushu, Japan August, 1992 Dedication This report is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill. (1927-1992) Dr. O'Neill pioneered the concept of harvesting the resources of space for the benefit of all humanity. He was an untiring proponent of Space Solar Power and his scholarly works, popular articles and books, including the award-winning The High Frontier, inspired many of our generation to careers in space. He founded the Space Studies Institute and served on the Board of Advisors of the International Space University since the Founding Conference in 1987. -· Acknowledgements The combined efforts of many people have made this report possible. First, we would like to thank all of our sponsors for making it possible for us to attend this !SU summer session and have the opportunity to work on the Space Solar Power Program project. Throughout the summer many distinguished speakers shared their knowledge and experience with us providing invaluable help in producing a quality report. We would like to thank them for taking the time to prepare their lectures and visit ns in Kitakyushu. Special thanks goes to the entire !SU faculty and staff for their patience and perserverance in helping us during the trials and tribulations of producing the final report. The SSPP faculty and staff deserve recognition and our thanks for providing guidance and reviewing the report at each stage of its development, for staying up all night with us and putting up with last minute changes and panics. This report would not have been possible without the help of the computer staff keeping the fileserver and printers limping along under intensive workloads. Finally, we would especially like to thank the sponsors of the Space Solar Power Design Program. Principal Sponsors: National Aeronautics and Space Administration U.S. Department of Energy Hydro Quebec The City of Kitakyushu, Japan Electrici te de France Contributors: European Space Agency Institute for Space and Astonautical Sciences Societe des Electriciens et des Electroniciens Space Studies Institute SUN SAT Energy Council The Boeing Company Kyushu Institute of Technology Shimizu We Acknowledge Continuing Support by: Apple Computer, Inc. C ESoftware BioCom PictureTel ii -· Faculty Preface The International Space University (ISU) held its 1992 summer session from June 16 to August 26 in Kitakyushu, Japan. ISU was hosted by the city of Kitakyushu. 'This is the fifth summer session since the inception of the International Space University summer sessions in 1988 at MIT. The ISU summer sessions consist of ten weeks of intense multidisciplinary lectures and workshops spanning all aspects of space studies. Introductory and advanced lectures are given in nine subjects: Space Architecture, Space Business & Management, Space Engineering, Space Life Sciences, Space Policy & Law, Space Resources & Manufacturing, Satellite Applications, Space Physical Sciences, and the Space Humanities program. In adclition to the ISU core curriculum and advanced lecture program, each ISU summer session includes one or more design projects. Spanning a portion of the ten week session, each ISU design project serves as a time-compressed simulation of a complete space design project. The purpose of the project is to give the students an opportunity to apply knowledge gained in ISU lectures and to participate in a multiclisciplinary team endeavor with challenging technical, social and economic factors. The interaction among inclividual students, their work teams, and the external experts and faculty provides each student with a broad overview of a large project which is usually only obtained after years of experience. Typically only project managers, directors and corporate executives have the opportunity to see the "big picture" which the students of !SU achieve. 'This experience is the first and principal "product" of an ISU design project. The second product of the ISU '92 Space Solar Power Program design project is this report. In it, the students describe a development plan for space solar power. The design project responds to a growing perception in the space solar power research community that building a fleet of giant solar power satellites as envisioned in the 1970s is too costly and clifficult a project for a first step. People have begun to realize that a systematic research and development program will have to be implemented in order to learn how to install solar power stations in space and to assess their potential for cost effective power production. Many demonstration projects have been proposed, but few institutions or agencies have looked at these to determine what the progression of projects should be to get from where we are now to global use of space solar power. For the Space Solar Power Project, t11e students were specifically asked not to create a point design of a large solar power satellite system. Instead, they were asked to build a development plan and, as part of this plan, to look at possible near and mid term demonstrations of space solar power technology. The work is unique, since such an overall plan - incorporating business, environmental, legal, technical, and other factors - has never been attempted. A set of possible demonstration projects has been examined by the students. A few of these have been worked out in some detail and others are left for future study. The early demonstrations could be deployed for technology validation and possibly to supply commercially useful amounts of power to other spacecraft. These demonstrations are possible steps to assess the overall viability of solar power plants capable of providing a significant amount of power to Earth. The report covers many aspects of space solar power in addition to the engineering. For example, it addresses major political questions associated with frequency allocation for microwave power beaming, and cliscusses the environmental issues which must be understood before space solar power can become widely accepted. Although the students have only limited time to work on such a large design project during a 10 week summer session, there are some creative ideas in this report and we have learned of new challenges that will have to be faced in the implementation of a Space Solar Power Program. We believe this report is a valuable addition to the literature on space solar power and will serve as a starting point for future research. iv vi Authors Humayun Arif USA Jyrki Laaksonen FINLAND Hugo Barbosa MEXICO Andrew Neill Lang USA Christophe Bardet FRANCE Corinna Lathan USA Michel Baroud FRANCE Thierry Le Fur FRANCE Alberto Behar USA David Lewis CANADA Keith Berrier USA Alain Louis FRANCE Philippe Berthe FRANCE Takeshi Mori JAPAN Reinhold Bertrand GERMANY Juan Morlanes SPAIN Irene Bibyk USA Marcus Murbach USA Joel Bisson CANADA Hideo Nagatomo JAPAN Lawrence Bloch USA Ivan O'Brien IRELAND Gabriel Bobadilla SPAIN Justin Paines UNITED KINGDOM Denis Bourque CANADA Bryan Palaszewski USA Lance Bush USA UlfPalmnas SWEDEN Romeo Carandang USA Marius Paraschivoiu CANADA Takerni Chiku JAPAN Asrnin Pathare USA Norma Crosby DENMARK Egor Perov RUSSIA Manuel De Seixas PORTUGAL Jan Persson SWEDEN Joha De Vries NETHERLANDS Isabel Pessoa-Lopes PORTUGAL Susan Doll USA Michel Pinto FRANCE Francois Dufour CANADA Irene Porro ITALY Peter Eckart GERMANY Michael Reichert GERMANY Michael Fahey USA Monika Ritt-Fischer GERMANY Frederic Fenot FRANCE Margaret Roberts USA Stefan Foeckersperger GERMANY Lawrence Robertson II USA Jean-Emmanuel Fontaine BELGIUM Keith Rogers USA Robert Fowler CANADA Tetsuo Sasaki JAPAN Harald Frey GERMANY Francesca Scire IT ALY Hironobu Fujio JAPAN Katsuya Shibatou JAPAN Jaume Munich Gasa SPAIN Tatsuya Shirai JAPAN Janet Gleave USA Atsushi Shiraishi JAPAN Jostein God~ NORWAY Jean-Fran~ois Soucaille FRANCE Iain Green UNITED KINGDOM Nova Spivack USA Roman Haberli SWITZERLAND Dany St Pierre CANADA Toshiya Hanada JAPAN Afzal Suleman PORTUGAL Peter Harris UNITED KINGDOM Thomas Sullivan USA Mario Hucteau FRANCE Bas Johan Theelen NETHERLANDS Didier Fernand Jacobs BELGIUM Hallvard Thonstad NORWAY Richard Johnson USA Masatoshi Tsuji JAPAN Yoshitsugu Kanno JAPAN Masaharu Uchiurni JAPAN Eva Maria Koenig AUSTRIA Jouni Vidqvist FINLAND Kazuo Kojima JAPAN David Warrell UNITED KINGDOM Phalli Kondepudi INDIA Takafumi Watanabe JAPAN Christian Kottbauer AUS TRI A Richard Wills USA Doede Kuiper NETHERLANDS Frank Wolf GERMANY Konstantin Kulagin RUSSIA Hiroshi Yamakawa JAPAN Pekka Kumara FINLAND Hong Zhao CHINA Rainer Kurz GERMANY viii Design Project Faculty PROGRAM DIRECTOR Gregg Maryniak Space Studies Institute, USA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Masaruichi Shigehara Kyushu Institute of Technology, JAPAN FACULTY Oleg Alifanov Moscow Aviation Institute, RUSSIA Sheila Bailey NASA Lewis Research Center, USA Henry Brandhorst NASA Lewis Research Center, USA Mikhail Burgasov Moscow Aviation Institute, RUSSIA Gay Canough ETM Inc., USA Dieter Kassing European Space Agency, GERMANY Nobuyuki Kaya Kobe University, JAPAN Saburou Kuwajima National Space Development Agency, JAPAN Michihiro Natori Institute for Space &Astronautical Science, JAPAN Susumu Sasaki Institute for Space &Astronautical Science, JAPAN Brent Sherwood Boeing Corp., USA Brian Tillotson Boeing Corp., USA PROJECT ASS I SSTANTS Yasuhiro Akahoshi Kyushu Institute ofTechnology, JAPAN Eric Dahlstrom Lockheed Corp., USA Barbara McKissock NASA Lewis Research Center, USA Fredric Nordlund Institute of Air and Space, CANADA VISITING LECTURERS