Space solar power article up too

NSS's print magazine, "Ad Astra", just reprinted my space solar power article from last summer, in the February issue of the magazine. Unfortunately that issue isn't up on the NSS web site yet. In fact, the official NSS web site was down most of last week, and is rather slow right now - and I've been involved in a volunteer effort to move it to a new location. Note the missing 'www' in the latter address. Still a bunch of work to do on it - for example, registration and donations aren't working in either place.

Review #3 - Einstein in Berlin

I think I really need to learn to write cogently within the 300-word limit of these reviews... it seems a little disjointed looking at the end result. Oh well... nice to see it in print again :-)

Letter to Suffolk Life

Our local weekly free rag has had some rather negative commentary on Bush's new space proposal - I felt prompted to respond last week with this note; they called to tell me it should be in the March 3rd edition of the paper.

Worldchanging

Jamais Cascio of worldchanging.com just posted some commentary on climate change, attaching a copy of an essay I sent on the subject of climate change mitigation. There are some alternatives that could resolve the problem, but as Cascio points out, may have other side-effects we don't like.

The Mars Project

Some thoughts after Shelly brought this book home from the library for me. Von Braun really liked the big projects, but in future perhaps what we really need is to think small, incremental steps.

New Presidential Commission

Neil Tyson emailed me with the URL for the new commission - looks like they're on a good track - Moon, Mars, and Beyond!

Second review - "Lost in Space"

I think I'll have to talk to the editor about the paragraph breaks - maybe I needed more in the original; anyway, it's up there :-)

At the basketball clinic

Turns out we have wireless networking in our schools - who would have thought?! Fun fun fun!

First review is up

My first book review for the Huntsville Times was published today! More interesting ones should be coming shortly...

Review of the new NASA

We're snowbound here today - actually it was less than a foot, and wasn't too bad to clear away.
Meanwhile (see the link) I've been reviewing reports on Bush's new space program. It sounds like it may really make a difference!

NSS letters

Some letters from NSS members on space exploration - in response to the complaints about the Bush plan. [Edited Feb 1 with the corrected URL!]

New Apollo Project

Fun with renewable energy - from the Apollo Alliance for energy independence.

Dean vs. the media

Some thoughts from me on how the press likes to pull things to 50/50; truth and even ideology likely having little to do with it.

And more comments over at sciscoop.

Bush will be making the big announcement to day - everybody stay tuned!

Some sciscoop links

Some thoughts from the NSS chapter meeting tonight...

My past sciscoop stories are all there too.

Back to the Moon, on to Mars!

Frank Sietzen seems to have the space scoop of the week!

Energy discussion continues

over at the Dean Issues Forum. Is space solar power workable, or not? Do we need more studies, or just to get down to working on the technology? I know what I want!

Dean Meetup tonight

Hmm, will I go? Ben's karate ends at 6:30 or so - might be late, if I can get there at all.
And then there's the Moon Society board meeting at 9 pm. Wednesday's are meeting days...

Baby talk

NY Times on teaching babies sign language :-)

The debate with Steve Fetter

See the attachments on the FPS board list for our more formal discussion papers...

Here are the main economic and technical challenges for space solar power, as I see them (a regulatory challenge not listed is the spectrum allocation/standardization problem):

4 technology research challenges for space power:
(1) The ratio of space to terrestrial solar module costs needs to be at most a value of 3 (space three times more expensive) - otherwise terrestrial power is always going to win out.
(2) The efficiency for wireless power transmission - a NASA goal was 40%, but higher efficiencies have been seen over short distances - can they be achieved over tens of thousands of km?
(3) Mass per peak kW is too high: 1 kg/kW has been argued by others to be achievable. Is it?
(4) Launch costs. $1000/kg, combined with the other technology targets, may allow space power to be cost competitive. Can we get to orbit for that, or less?

The energy transition problem is one that will cost 5-10 trillion dollars or more over the next 50 years; a few billions spent on investigating all the physically plausible alternatives seems like money well spent.