London – Japan expected to start from space Next year, two years after American engineers achieved a similar feat, the company will fly to Earth. The development marks a major step toward possible space-based solar power plants that could help the world transition away from fossil fuels amid a growing battle to wean itself off fossil fuels. climate change.
Speaking at this week’s International Space Energy Conference, Koichi Ijichi, a consultant at Japanese research agency Japan Space Systems, outlined Japan’s roadmap to demonstrate a micro-space-based solar power plant in orbit that would wirelessly transmit energy from low earth orbit world.
“It will be a small satellite, about 180 kilograms [400 pounds]will transmit about 1 kilowatt of electricity from an altitude of 400 kilometers [250 miles]”, Ijichi said at the meeting.
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One kilowatt is about the amount of electricity a household appliance, such as a small dishwasher, needs to run for about an hour, depending on its size. Therefore, the demonstration scale is far from the scale required for commercial use.
The spacecraft will use 22 square feet (2 square meters) of onboard photovoltaic panels to charge its batteries.The accumulated energy is then converted into microwaves and transmitted to the receiving antenna Earth. Because the spacecraft is traveling so fast—about 17,400 mph (28,000 km/h)—the antenna elements must be spread out over a distance of about 25 miles (40 km), spaced 3 miles (5 km) apart, to provide adequate of energy is transmitted.
“The transfer only takes a few minutes,” Ijichi said. “But once the battery is drained, it takes several days to recharge.”
The mission is part of the OHISAMA (Japanese for “sun”) project and is expected to launch in 2025. . Ijichi said the aircraft will be equipped with the same photovoltaic panels found on spacecraft and will emit electricity over a distance of 3 to 4 miles (5 to 7 kilometers).
From concept to reality
Space-based solar power generation, First described in 1968 by former Apollo engineers
Peter Glaser, has always been considered science fiction. While theoretically possible, the technology was deemed impractical and cost-prohibitive because it would require assembling huge structures in orbit to produce the required power output.
But that has changed, according to experts who spoke at the conference, thanks to recent technological advances and the urgency to decarbonize the global electricity supply to stop climate change.
Unlike most renewable energy generation technologies used on Earth (including solar and wind power), space solar energy can be continuously available because it is not dependent on weather and environment. time same day. Currently, nuclear power plants or gas and coal-fired power plants are used to meet demand after wind breaks or sunset. Advances in technology may help partially solve this problem in the future. But ensuring a seamless, carbon-neutral electricity supply by mid-century, in line with international climate change agreements, still requires solving a number of challenges.
Developments in robotics, improvements in the efficiency of wireless power transmission, and most importantly, SpaceX giant rocket Starship arrives Experts told the conference that this would make space-based solar energy a reality.
Last year, a satellite Built by Caltech engineers as part of a space solar demonstration mission Solar energy launched from space for first time. The mission, which ended in January, was seen as an important milestone.
More space solar demonstration projects are in the pipeline.Space and research institutions around the world are working on this technology, including European Space Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force.Commercial companies and startups are also developing concepts, taking advantage of available starship and the emergence of advanced space robotics.
However, not everyone is enthusiastic about the potential of space-based solar power. in January, NASA posted a Reports questioning the feasibility of the technology. The difficulty and amount of energy required to build, launch and assemble orbital power stations means the energy they produce will be prohibitively expensive – 61 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with just 5 cents per kilowatt hour from Earth-based solar or power stations .
Additionally, the overall carbon footprint of electricity production and the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the rockets that carry these components into orbit make space-based solar power less climate-friendly than technologies used on Earth. For example, a gigawatt spaceborne solar power station, such as the CASSIOPeiA concept power station proposed by the British company Space Solar, would require 68 interstellar spacecraft to reach space.
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Image Source : www.space.com