I Knew that We'd End Up in Space Sooner or Later

So there's all different types of power these days. There's the renewables, including hydroelectric power, solar power, wind power, nuclear power, and hydrogen power just to name a few. There's also the farfetched things including algae power (as mentioned previously in this blog). Then, there are the non-renewables including things like coal, natural gas, oil, oil shale, biomass, and tar sands. Did I leave anything out that seems pretty interesting?

I know some of the students in our ENGR407 class talked a little bit about the idea of mechanical power as well as power that is generated by extreme differences in temperature, but these things are almost mediocre in the vast enigma that is energy. People are always searching for new ways to generate power. In this day and age everyone is beginning to worry because of the damage the non-renewables have caused our environment, and also because there is definitely exponentially growing demand that opposes a significantly dwindling supply. Non-renewables have caused conflicts in government, foreign policy, culture, foreign direct investment, law, economics, and so much more.

I attended an entrepreneurship forum the other day and the extremely successful and wealthy speaker told me something that stuck in my mind. It's probably the best advice anyone has ever given me in terms of learning how to become an entrepreneur and start a business. He told me "if there's something out there that you consider to be a pain in the ass, or something that really pisses you off, you have an opportunity for a business." So what pisses us off? Well, I'd think that gas prices piss us off. A war overseas in which oil has a significant (although underplayed) influence. Annoying wind turbines piss us off. The high prices and low benefits for solar power piss us off. The dwindling natural resources on earth piss us off. So why not head elsewhere, and start something new, powerful, and life-changing.

Currently, scientists at Washington State University have moved into the solar system. I guess that they've decided that the Earth just isn't cutting it anymore, and for all the right reasons. It's called solar-wind power, and its the first of its kind. It's said that solar-wind power will provide enough energy to satisfy all energy requirements of mankind.


 

The way that solar wind power works is probably not what you would expect. There are no blades attached. Instead, a satellite is shot into space and looks somewhat like the sheet pictured above. The sheet is made of charged copper wire which harnesses energy from the from electrons that are shooting away from the sun at amazing speeds of several hundred kilometers per second.

Some of the advantages of this system include:

•   The energy that will be supplied to the Earth will be enough to supply all of mankind's power needs, although not all of the energy will be transferred back. Some will need to be used to charge the copper wire in order to create a magnetic field. 
• Scientists believe that it can generate one billion billion gigawatts of energy if they put a sail in space 8,400 km wide.
• 1000 homes could be lit with just 300 meters (984 feet) of copper wire, which is attached to a two-meter-wide (6.6-foot-wide) receiver and a 10-meter (32.8-foot) sail.
• This source of energy could generate much more power than scientists predicted.

Some of the disadvantages include:

• There are definitely a lot of engineering difficulties and logistics before this project is put into the air. 
• Given the distance of the solar sheet from the earth, more concentrated laser beams need to be formed. 
• It will be extremely difficult to tap the energy.

Looking at comments based on this idea, there is definitely some skepticism. I think an idea like this could be extremely beneficial to us, but as many others have commented, there's still a very long way before we know for sure how to harness this energy and how to build something of such magnitude.

Until next time...

Pat