h+ Magazine

46 Feb 2009 AI bIo enhAnCeD nAno neURo hUMoR FoReVeR YoUng throw away like the shuttle rockets — the ones that have carried hundreds of tons of cargo into space. Why throw those rocket designs and manufacturing facilities away? Why retire the teams that make them? Why not amortize the cost of their research and development by building more of them? Why not take advantage of economies of scale to drive their costs per launch down? And why not use them to build an infrastructure in space? h+: I wonder about the claim that we will run out of all energy resources during this century, even the natural kind. Aren't we going to invent better technologies for collecting wind, solar and hydro? What about nuclear? Or the potential for fusion? Wouldn't making these technologies ever safer, cheaper — maybe even using some form of self- replication — be cheaper than putting big heavy material up into space? hb: Mike Snead can answer this better than I can. he's used generous figures about the amounts of energy terrestrial sources like ground solar and wind would produce. And one more detail. even if we save energy like misers, we will have to spend trillions to increase our energy output to satisfy our own needs and to elevate the living standard of the Third World to the level you and I enjoy today. And what will we get for it? Frankly, eyesores with no additional value. There are no multiple uses — no additive benefits for miles and miles of solar panels and hills studded with windmills. What we'll get out of a vigorous space solar power program is radically different. We'll get an infrastructure in a territory where resources are stunning. The moon is an immense source of raw materials for concrete, steel, glass, and semi-conductors. Some call it The earth's eighth Continent. Lifting resources from the Moon's surface is inexpensive. The Moon's gravity is one-sixth of ours here on earth. What's more, asteroids are massive sources of nickel, titanium, and platinum. And comets are mobile fuel stations made of the liquid oxygen and hydrogen we use to propel space ships. What in the world would we do with unending amounts of building materials in space? Those are the raw materials from which we can build second and third- generation space solar power satellites. And they're the raw materials from which we can build huge rotating colonies that can house 10,000 humans or more. Space is real estate. It's real estate in the sun. every space solar power satellite we build is a part of the infrastructure of a new economy. It's a way station on the way to the stars. And not just a way station for us. It's a way station for life, for ecosystems, and for the future of the grand experiment of DnA and cells, an experiment in need of new lands to bioform, new land — and skies — to green. h+: I think the new paradigm with he's used very conservative figures about what our energy needs will be. but you're right. Folks like Ray Kurzweil swear that nanotechnologies and other breakthroughs will produce nearly god-like increases in the amount of energy we can squeeze from sunlight falling on the surface of the earth. I was a big booster of ground solar in its early days. With one of the members of Styx, I put together the first series of pro-solar public service radio ads in 1981. So I like ground solar. but what seems more important to me is this: to put together big- scale ground solar projects, we will have to destroy ecosystems. Many of the ground solar mega-plans I've seen require covering most of the Mojave Desert with solar panels or with solar-concentrating mirrors. goodbye to the lizards and to the plants that are unique to that environment. goodbye to biodiversity and delights for the eye. More crucial — even if you put on eco- blinders, there is only so much real estate on earth you can cover with solar collectors. The sheer land is going to run out. The same is true of coal, oil, natural gas, geothermal, and even useable real estate for wind. All of them are finite. We need a source that is infinite. The only two nearly infinite sources I know of are fusion — which doesn't yet exist and which has continued to elude us for 60 years — and solar power from space.

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