Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/356
45 WWW.hPLUSMAgAzIne.CoM T here's no scarcity of solar energy…closer to the sun. The Space Development Steering Committee (SDSC), which includes such influential figures as nASA astronauts buzz Aldrin and edgar Mitchell, and Peter garretson, the Chief of the Future Science and Technological exploration branch of the US Air Force, have recently become very vocal about advocating the development of space-based solar power collectors. A study conducted by Air Force Research Lab veteran J. Michael Snead on behalf of the organization has convinced its members that space-solar is the only way to avoid a potential existential disaster by meeting humanity's energy needs into the 21st Century and beyond. I interviewed SDSC founder howard bloom via e-mail. Aside from his role in the organization, bloom is the author of such popular and influential books as The Lucifer Principle and global brain. h+: This idea of putting solar panels in space was in circulation during the 1970s. And it probably never happened because of expense. What's happening now that makes you optimistic that we can do this? hoWARD bLooM: In 1970, the price of oil was $3 a barrel. on June 26, 2008, it went up to $140 a barrel. Today, it's down to a mere $60 a barrel. Sixty dollars a barrel. Think about it. That's 20 times the price in 1970. And guess what? It will go back to $140 again. And beyond. In 1973, oPeC showed us why we needed to get off our oil addiction. It cut off our supply. We waited hours in mile-long lines for gas. Richard nixon, of all people, called for the moral equivalent of war, a full-out crusade for energy independence. Jimmy Carter picked up the energy lance and ran with it. Then came the false morning in America under Ronald Reagan, who cut the funding Carter and nixon had put into research and development of alternative technologies like solar and wind. And we, stupid sheep that we are, went along with him on the high ride to another oil pig-out. This time I think the American public knows that we can't make that mistake again. Meanwhile James Michael Snead, of The Space Development Steering Committee, is about to finish a ten-month study of our oil future. Snead is a 25-year-veteran of the Air Force Research Lab. he is a meticulous engineer, and he knows his stuff. What does his study reveal? That even if we use every alternative energy source — ground-based solar, wind, geothermal, and wave power; even if we use every form of traditional nasty energy — shale oil, clean coal, dirty coal, and natural gas; and even if we build between 16,000 and 35,000 nuclear plants (versus the current world total of 600), we will run out of energy by 2100. Snead wants me to let you know that we will actually run out well before 2100. So we need the normal alternative fuels — ground solar, wind, and all the rest. We need them urgently. We may also need the carbon-coughing non-renewable energy sources. not to mention nuclear. The whole package will cost us trillions. but despite the expense they entail, all these will only boost us for roughly 20 years. Then we will slowly slide into an energy gulch. Again. Meanwhile, you asked another very good question. What's changed technologically since Peter glazer first gave us his space solar power visions in 1968? everything. We went to the moon the year glazer first gave us the space solar power concept. Since then, we've developed an entire industry based on space solar power. We just don't know it. We have a $125 billion a year satellite business beaming radio waves, television waves, and geopositioning information down to earth. Where have the 5,000 or so satellites launched since the beginning of the space era gotten their power? The sun… using solar panels. What else do we have today that we didn't have in 1968? back then solar panels were only able to convert roughly five percent of the solar energy that they snagged into energy. Today, new solar panels in the lab are claiming efficiencies of 40%. And that figure will continue to rise as we build our space solar power infrastructure. Meanwhile, we've developed dozens if not hundreds of rocket-types capable of carrying cargo into space. America has them. The europeans have them. The Russians have them. The Chinese have them. And even India — the low-cost outsourcer of choice for low-priced everything — has them. our obstacle? In the US, we still make these rockets by hand one at a time. or that's my layman's understanding. but what would happen if we mass-produced them, the way the Syrians are now mass- producing short- and medium-range missiles? The price would come down. Then there are the rockets we've got and are about to