▲ Concept map of solar satellite
News on November 27, Beijing time, according to foreign media reports, a huge solar power station is floating in space, radiating countless energy to the earth. This concept, which sounds like a scene in a science fiction novel, was actually first proposed by the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the 1920s. It has indeed been a source of inspiration for many science fiction authors.
However, a century later, scientists have made tremendous progress in realizing this concept. The European Space Agency has realized the potential of these tasks and is also seeking funding for these projects, and predicts that the first industrial resource we obtain from space will be “beam energy . “
Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time, so the risks are also very great. From rising global temperatures to changing climate patterns, climate change has affected everyone in the world. Overcoming this challenge requires us to radically change the way we produce and consume energy.
In recent years, renewable energy technologies have developed rapidly, with higher efficiency and lower costs. But a major obstacle to the adoption of renewable energy sources is that they cannot continue to provide energy. Wind farms and solar farms can only generate energy when the wind blows strongly or the sun is shining in the sky, but we need electricity every hour of the day. Therefore, before we can popularize renewable energy, we must first find a way to store energy on a large scale.
One possible solution to this problem may be to generate solar energy in space. This approach has many advantages. A space solar power station can operate facing the sun 24 hours a day. The earth’s atmosphere also absorbs and reflects part of the sunlight. Therefore, solar cells above the atmosphere can receive more sunlight and generate more energy.
But here comes the question: how do we assemble, launch and deploy such a huge structure? The area of a single solar power station may be at least 10 square kilometers, equivalent to 1,400 football fields. Secondly, the use of lightweight materials is also crucial, because the biggest cost will be the use of rockets to send power stations into space.
A suggested solution is to develop thousands of small satellites. These satellites are gathered together and can be assembled into a large solar generator through configuration. In 2017, researchers from the California Institute of Technology proposed the design of a modular power station. The power station consists of thousands of ultra-light solar cell blocks. The researchers also showed a prototype battery block that weighs only 280 grams per square meter.
Recently, the development achievements of the manufacturing industry, such as 3D printing, are also expected to be used in the development of space solar power stations. At the University of Liverpool, researchers are exploring new manufacturing processes to print ultra-light solar cells onto solar sails. This solar sail is a foldable, lightweight and high-reflectivity film that can use the sun’s radiation pressure to propel the spacecraft forward without the need for fuel. Researchers are also exploring how to embed solar cells on solar sail structures to create large-scale, fuel-free solar power stations.
These methods can help us build power stations in space. In fact, one day in the future, we may be able to manufacture and deploy power station devices on the International Space Station or future gateway stations orbiting the moon.
Probably not so much. Although we currently rely on materials on the earth to make power stations, scientists are also considering using resources in space (such as materials found on the moon) to directly carry out processing and manufacturing.
After the above problems are solved, the remaining major challenge is how to transfer energy back to the earth. The current plan is to convert the electrical energy in solar cells into energy waves, and then use electromagnetic fields to transmit the energy waves to antennas on the earth’s surface. The antenna then turns the energy wave back into electrical energy. Researchers from the Japan Aeronautics and Space Administration have developed several designs and demonstrated an orbital system that can achieve these functions.
Even so, we still have a lot of work to do in this area. But our goal is that solar power stations in space will become possible in the coming decades. Chinese researchers have designed a system called Omega, which is expected to be put into use by 2050. The system can provide 2GW of power to the earth grid under the best performance. If solar panels were used to generate so much electricity on the earth, more than 6 million solar panels would be needed.
However, smaller solar satellites, such as those designed to power the lunar lander, could be put into use earlier. Today, the global scientific community is investing a lot of time and energy to develop solar power stations in space. We hope that one day they can become an important tool for us to deal with climate change.
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