Could Space-Based Solar Save The World? | Answers With Joe
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2019
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Solar power is on the rise, and that's a good thing. But solar power has one major drawback - it can't make energy at night, which is literally half the time.
But there is a place where you have constant sun, 24 hours a day, with no cloud cover, and get twice as much energy - outer space.
Could giant solar panels in space be the key to unlimited energy?
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LINKS LINKS LINKS:
Cal Tech Space Solar project
• Space Solar Power: A N...
What If
• What If We Covered the...
Life Noggin
• Why Don't We Just Put ...
ExplainingTheFuture
• Space-Based Solar Power
Real Engineering
• Why SpaceX is Making S...
www.space.com/26175-peter-gla...
Nasa Fresh Look Studies: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
United States National Security Space Office Studies
space.nss.org/space-based-sol...
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/8...
www.theguardian.com/environme...
www.solarenspace.com/solaren-s... - Věda a technologie
"colonizing the poles"
*Sad Polish noises*
It makes no sense that the Po River is not flowing through Poland
@@wp12mv in this world IT DOES
Too soon.
*excited in german*
Możecie próbować ale to was będzie bolało...
In Simcity 2000, this was one of the options the player had for powering their city. Of course, there were occasional accidents where the beam was misdirected and hit the city instead of the collector.
There's a mod for the expansion of the real time strategy game C&C Generals called Rise of the Reds which one of the factions uses their Solaris Power Project as both a massive power source as a controlled and constant beam of concentrated solar energy with the Solar Reactor Building and a orbital superweapon using the Solaris Relay which turns it into an orbital bombardment platform with a small burst of solar radiation or, if you want to go full unethical, if you research the Pandora Project, instead of a controlled high energy burst you get an uncontrolled but still concentrated beam of solar radiation that cooks the target area for 10 seconds. This is pretty yikes even compared to the United States in the base game where they basically had an array of satellites which will redirect a beam of particles at a given area from a ground station.
Yummy ! Roast humans for lunch.
And that's where it should stay, in a kids game.
@@davidjessop2279 Could be a preferable alternative to nukes as a weapon.
@@BoostedMonkey05 toutttttttttttituusuuutuuruo iustissuststiis u
This has now become my favorite channel about science and curiosities since VSauce when MIA.
If you want good science content, watch Isaac Arthur, makes amazing content .
Recommendation for "Cool Worlds" mate, Dr. Kipping is awesome 👌
@@joshuagharis9017 Thanks. I watch his videos from time to time. Good stuff indeed.
"aaaaaaaand, here come the comments"
I see you Joe Scott. I see you.
I had to slow down to .25 and still didn’t catch it
You actually got the right amount of 'a's, I see you A duck. I see you.
Definitely yes on the molten salt video. Please. (I just noticed, Almost to 500K. you're killing this CZcams thing. Keep it up)
Yes!!!
also talk about Molten salt reactors and thorium ;0
I've covered Throrium and MSRs.
I knew they existed. I would just like one of my favorite science communicators to go into detail on them.
He's, kind of a big deal... ;)
I was binge watching your older videos and you were talking about how excited you were to get a couple of thousand subscribers.
Almost half a million now. Good show, old chap (jk)
Some of that old stuff is kinda fun. There were just no rules back then. I had no idea what I was doing so I did everything. :)
Thanks for the kind words!
@@joescott How do you guys get so many subscribers? As in how do you make your videos stand out among the crowd?
@@albertjackinson in this order:
Perseverance
Follow the trend
Play the algorithm
@@albertjackinson Quality, relevance , and flawlessly vulgarized
"It's not a Death Star; it's a high-speed interplanetary solar power distributor!"
-Earthlings to the judges of the Galactic Council, 20xx
Come back down to Earth, or you have little chance of living to an old age. By the end of this century the big cull will have already been going for some time.
We investigated this concept in college 30 years ago. Problem is, the solar wind would keep propelling the receptor out of orbit. Doesn't matter how efficient the energy transfer is, its a conservation of energy balance situation.
Oops. Good point there. Back to populating the desert with PVs then :-)
Isaac Arthur viewers:
AMATEURS!
LOL way too advanced
Iv'e a question regarding your anatomic anomaly:
How do you breathe,with head so deep up own ass?
Arthur may be good in technological speculations, but he is extremely close minded regarding economic system changes and political-social structure changes which will render some of his classic capitalist calculations meaningless. Based on his examinations of costs involved in certain developments sounds similarly silly to how a cavemen only knowing exchange economy would calculate the cost of our modern conveniences.
@@Hy-jg8ow Yeah but he does put a disclaimer (in the videos that I have watched). I think most of his work is for people who are 100-200 years ahead of us... where socio-political structures are more egalitarian.
That dude needs a speech therapist. I can't watch his videos; his speech impediment is just too distracting.
I think that anyone that mentions microwave power from space and doesn't show a clip from Sim City 2000 isn't doing the topic it's due justice.
One of the best names for a disaster: "Microwave Oops"
Agreed
Correctomundo.
I miss Sim City 2000 so much! but I haven't found a current version I can play on my 2012 mac mini or newer computer. I'd almost go get an older model from an antique computer dealer (do they still exist?) just to play that and "Heroes of Might and Magic 2" and a couple others. I foolishly got rid of my old computers at one point and now I wish I hadn't.
@@animistchannel2983 Use a virtual machine running windows, it should do the trick, or some crazy fan with too much time on their hand might have made a mac compatible version, poke the internet :)
To send power to Earth from satellites in space via lasers. Hmm.
"Look at the facts: 1. Very high powered. 2. Portable. 3. Limited firing time. 4. Unlimited range. All you need is a tracking system, and a large spinning mirror and you can vaporize a human target from space." - Lazlo, Real Genius
LOL... I had that same thought! Yeah, using lasers and using mirrors to focus the sunlight to a point on Earth both amount to creating a Death Ray. Not only that, but they would be blocked by clouds. Microwaves are the best option.
@@ABQSentinel Yeah, I was wondering if microwaves could be weaponized too
@@corey333p Any intense beam of energy can be weaponized. But the microwave beam is the one which offers the most options for safety (i.e. you can have the beam really wide to avoid cooking the area you are sending energy too, and you could have an encrypted handshake that is required before the beam will active on a known station). Microwaves penetrate clouds very easily, so that means we could beam power to any point on Earth regardless of the weather.
There's another advantage of space-based power production--even after we completely get rid of fossil fuels, there is still the issue that any form of energy production will create a lot of waste heat as a by-product. By doing the collection in space, a lot of that waste heat is created OUTSIDE of our atmosphere/biosphere. So, for all of those reasons and more, space-based solar power should be our ultimate goal.
So it goes from God, to Jerry, to you, to the cleaners...
Lasers most definitely do not have unlimited range. You should say very long range instead.
isn't this the beginning of a Dyson Sphere? Bring on the Kardeshev II!
Better get started on world peace too then...so...erm...good luck?
You're hands down my favourite CZcamsr, perhaps even my favourite human. Thanks for all the entertainment/anxiety mate.
I specialize in anxtainment.
with you on this :D one of the best youtuber. Nice intelligent analysis +1. 500k ! hype :D
Tweet this video at Elon! Tell him to get on this shit!
EDIT : should always watch the entire video before commenting :D
lol xD
Don't worry, people have already tweeted it at him.
I tend to forget sometimes that people actually watch these videos.
You learned the hard way :D
My only wonder about creating this tech would be the transmission down to the ground collection. There must be a limit to the energy levels, I assume, to avoid ionization of the atmosphere. Could that be something Elon was referencing?
I'm only recently looking into this topic so please forgive my lack of information.
Elon is correct. It’s BS.
10:52 .... Thank you! This desperately needs to be heard and implemented! The UHV transmission lines are not only ugly, but they are essentially giant heating elements (though a really * really * small amount, it does add up).
The laser option makes me nervous. What prevents someone from turning it into a space based weapon? Oh, nothing.
Yeah that space-based solar array always did look like a Giant Magnifying Glass to me! Guess who the ants are? Yikes!
To stop a laser you just need a mirror
@@Kannot2023 merry xmas!!
Yes, that's true. But you dont really know where to put the mirror up, or when. Plus the beam could be spread out over a huge area, even a laser beam spreads. It doesnt spread as much as non coherent light, but it does spread.
I guess a missile could be stopped with a giant net also.
I guess all major buildings in large cities could have giant mirrors hidden away.
But suppose they decide to blast a mile radius in the park of a large city?
@@nosuchthing8 You pretty much have the same danger with nukes. Once you hit destroying humankind on the danger scale it pretty much doesn't go any further. Actually come to think of it space lasers might be safer. They at least don't have nuclear fallout.
@@dillonvandergriff4124 space lasers were a con. That's the point. Reagan was sold on the idea of an xray laser. A laser the size of a desk powered by a nuclear weapon. In theory it could take out ICBMs coming over the horizon.
But it was a scandal. They spent billions and never got a working version.
Solar energy drawn to power mining asteroids to power constructing further energy collection... pretty much step 1 toward a dyson sphere.
Martial Borschel : That's an interesting thought but will the smelters be close enough to use solar and how big will the solar array be to supply power for the smelters? A better option is a Kilopower type system.
@@CraigLYoung I feel like thats more relevant for energy expression. This is arguably only for powering things locally, whereas those systems are more about ability to extend range of accessibility. Another way around is using the lasers to power ship engines, or push the ship itself. Same for channeling asteroid orbits into access.
actually I think von neuman machines will be step 1 towards a dyson swarm, we are not too far away from them, I think a century at most
there isnt enough material in the solar system for a dyson sphere or even a ring world.
Daniel Roden entierly false,
Let me explain why:
1. A dyson sphere aka dyson swarm doesn’t need to be complete, meaning all of the solar output doesn’t need to be covered, so as long as your swarm covers a significant portion of it’s output according to your needs, it’s good.
2. The radius of your swarm can be very close to the sun, making the amount of satellites required significantly lower than a 1AU radius one.
3. The sun composes 98% of the solar system’s mass, if you remove 1% of it’s mass through starlifting as use that as a building material, there is more than enough to build a pretty dense dyson swarm...
4. Most numbers I have seen on dyson swarms says that disassembling Mercury and a few asteroids might already be more than enough for a decent dyson swarm
Joe's one frame comment at 2:09 is "aaaaaaaand, here come the comments"
I can't believe I wasted 5 minutes powering up my laptop and seeking CZcams frames for that.
5 minutes to start the laptop? I'm so glad to have switched to ssds for the laptop, I don't even remember how that feels.
Ooohh... I did that too and later saw this comment... what an oohh pity pitty situation...
fun fact!
press '' to move between frames
@@livethefuture2492 Indeed; thus the 'seeking frames'
“Obviously if we captured all that it would be a very dark hour but anyway the point is...”. Best science channel line ever.
You are one of my "if you could invite anyone living or dead" dinner guest choices! I really enjoy how you present information and how you tie it into the past, present, and future. When your videos come up in the recommended (on Apple TV) - it's always "click Joe, let's see what he's got to say". LOVE YOUR CHANNEL
Could you please do a video on technology based on biology? Like creating energy using cells and such, similar to how animals do it and other stuff that could be possible?
Would be really cool.
I agree with this, please do a video on this subject Joe. Biology based technology is a very interesting subject.
I read an article, back in college, that talked about using living tissue of some sort to store electronic information, basically a living hard drive. The advantages this has over conventional modern storage methods are staggering. For example, if your living hard drive breaks for some reason, it would need to be healed instead of repaired, and if the living material used is able to regenerate, like some animals are able to do, it wouldn't even need to be healed, you would just have to wait for it to repair itself. You would probably have to supply it with some sort of material to heal itself, basically feed it, but it would be perfectly repaired, and if your using a redundant data system you wouldn't lose any of your data that was in the damaged section.
This technology would also pave the way for biotech cybernetics and brain machine interfaces. Just think of it, hooking yourself into one of these living hard drives and downloading your memories while they are fresh in your mind, basically giving you perfect recall, not to mention the ability to share your experiences with others. It would sure beat a camcorder at recording events.
@@GiantSavage117 Yeah just think about the amount of storage the human brain has and all the processing power, could have some great applications and would like to know what is the current state of tech/knowledge of this type of thing.
Imagine you store it on some single cell organisms, and millions of years from now when it has reproduced and evolved, some little rats mocking around contain copies of your entire porn collection in their biological material.
It's interesting but likely more applicable as part of prosthetics or implants rather than major power production, still, a altered or synthetically recreated version of the cells electric eels use to organically generate their high voltage pulses would be useful for letting the human body help power a robotic limb or other permanent device on the long term, possibly even a wireless charging pad installed in the palm of your hand to charge your other devices to a degree (and don't doubt we'll still have external devices to use even if we do go the route of installing neural interfaces and other hardware that would otherwise seem to replace, say, a phone, having that external less expensive hardware that can be cheaply upgraded or swapped, or able to support more processing power than your 'installed augments' may have room for will likely be a long term thing.
and yes I am prone to wild speculation on trans-humanism topis at times, I can't help it XD
Yeah I'm with Elon, storage is far more important to invest in, however atm I'd rather see fusion.
Look at the sun.
@@scientistsbaffled5730 hilarious
We can have functional, fusion energy today, on earth, if someone would mine helium 3 from the surface of the moon.
@@crazyhorsesass But how would you get past the nazi's?
@@crazyhorsesass and the glass Dome?
+1 to separate video on solar/thermal collection systems, would be greatly appreciated!
Great stuff, as always. I would love to see a video about superconductivity, this would have a huge impact on this storage issue too...
I wonder if instead of sending *any* PV cells into space, it might be better to just send up concentrators (lenses if they can be cheap/light enough, or a large enough mirror array) aimed at ground-based solar. You'll have some more losses due to attenuation, but the most expensive, maintenance intensive, and upgrade-able portion would still be readily accessed.
It is quite the distance ya know. I somewhat doubt that it would work all too well
Yes, but the chance of it become weaponized is high too
So you're in the concentration camp ,huh?
inb4 someone points that giant bean on a city.
How many cities could you melt every day with this lens?
There is a guy who still measures the distance from the earth to the moon using that instrument and he did an interview a few months ago for one of the science channels here on CZcams. If I remember correctly, he is the LAST PERSON who is STILL considered an employee from the Apollo program.
He is my kindred spirit- my spirit sensei. I say that because I was the last Craftsman, (out of a total of hundreds), who worked on a closed nuclear power plant. The guards locked up the gates as I passed through finishing my last shift.
It's lonely to be the final-
HIGHLANDER!!
A lot of astronomers measure the distance to the Moon regularly. So at least he has company (somewhat).
This is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching
Power storage, as with all needs of the future, is important enough to never stop exploring. Thanks for the comprehensive look at the current state of this work!
One of the areas where a considerable amount of energy is lost in this system, and was not mentioned in this video, is energy from the microwave or laser as it passes through the atmosphere.
This is a significant loss, that energy is converted to heating the atmosphere, and at these levels of power, also damaging it.
If there was a cryptocurrency powered entirely by solar power, would it be called Starbucks?
be kind, for already you are powerful.
Cyprocurrency powered by solar is solarbucks. Cryptocurrency powered by a sun is nukebucks.
@@simongold2739 or Starbuck
@superior_troglodyte The sun is a star. Plenty of objects orbit other stars.
If you are going to try and take all the fun out of a pun with science, at least get the science right.
Your going places kid.
I am finally caught up on all of your videos, phew that took a while. Love your work and hope you keep it up
Saw these (Starlink) on a flight over the Atlantic to Europe last week. The sun was well below the eastern horizon but the satellites were lit up and flying east in a long string. The common VHF frequency was full of "Are you guys seeing this?". One of the coolest things I've seen in a lifetime of flying. Thanks for the great thought-provoking material, Joe. I really enjoy your view of things. Dave J
When you say VHF you mean the conversations with pilots and air traffic control?
@@davidt8087 Over the Atlantic (and Pacific for that matter)there are common VHF frequencies used by pilots (one radio for emergency contact, another for air to air general communications between crews, like ride reports and other noncritical stuff. ) ATC comm is HF radio or direct Satcom links until you get closer to the coasts where the VHF range allows direct communication with ATC. In this case it was the common frequency 123.45 where all the crews were talking.
@@dj-kq4fz oh yea I'm a private pilot. By ride reports you mean one crew asking another crew to relay their position or whatever to atc?
@@davidt8087 That will happen occasionally, but it's usually just crews asking about turbulence ahead from other planes on the same track (there's a bunch of designated tracks over the oceans)
You have taught me so much, I love this stuff.
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity; essentially pump water uphill when you have excess power, let it flow downhill and generate power as needed.
Agree, but there are dangers with that -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Hydroelectric_Power_Station#2005_upper_reservoir_failure
@@raffriff42 There are a few dangers when it comes to space flight, too. Nothing is free of risk.
This is 1/1000 good reasons why we need to ignore the wait calculation and get started on a global collaboration on a space elevator/lift/ramp
idk about collaborative projects, I mean, look how slow ITER is coming along. A space elevator would take 100 years for them to complete the first stage of testing viability.
@@ObsceneSuperMatt so better get started TODAY!
@Adymn Sani Except if anything goes wrong, the slightest imbalance, and you have a world-spanning hula hoop of doom!
@Adymn Sani Great! Get started. ;)
@@ObsceneSuperMatt Most of it would burn up in re-entry. Not counting the people on the ring, it would be somewhat anticlimactic.
One thing you didn't talk about are the requirements of ground based installations. In particullar, would the beams (be it radio, laser, or super-concentrated sunlight) be dangerous? Would anyone or anything accidently going through them get cooked?
Except for mid-latitude lunar locations, space based solar is always going to lose to local power gen. On the moon, we are probably looking for a earth-Luna-l3 mirror. Pump some light onto some solar cells that are located on the surface durning the lunar night. And also, the "spill" can light up the place.
Also, we have about 1,000 years of uranium and thorium, so neither as "readily exhaustible".
We can create water on Mars, but can't supply clean water to Flint Michigan?. ❓
Joe, why don’t you upload the audio from your CZcams vids to your podcast? I can’t be only one who would love to listen to your analysis and commentary on the go.
This. I listen to your CZcams video while driving anyway. Having an audio only format would make things far easier.
I actually did this for a while... I don't know why I stopped. Just one more thing to deal with I think. And it seemed redundant to me - as you said, you can listen to the CZcams audio anyway.
I think I wanted the podcast to be its own thing and then I got involved with Our Ludicrous Future and my own personal podcast went away. I don't know. I go back and forth on doing something with it.
@@joescott - Delegate? One of your answerphiles would likely be willing to strip the audio and upload it to a podcast each time you post. Other Creators lean heavily on their communities for scripting review, graphics, and much more. This would be a simple task in comparison. Your show though. :-)
I would listen!!
@@joescott I would listen. I don't have WiFi at work to listen to CZcams stuff and would love to add you to my Podcast rotation. :)
Seriously, thank you so much for lowering your background music. We have solar panels and a powerwall on our house and it's awesome. Great tax break and totally worth it.
DarkleMotion do you believe in nuclear?
@@dildoshwagins2222 What do you mean?
@@SparkIeMotion That if you think nuclear power is the best option in order to produce our energy out of nuclear, cutting fossil fuels and getting us some years in order to get better renewable technology. Of course solar and wind are good, but if you take into acount the materials and efficiency, nuclear is the greenest option which is ironic.
@@aa-to6ws From the research I've done on the topic, I do believe nuclear is a much better source for the environment than fossil fuels. I have seen all the fear mongering spread by the opponents of nuclear and it seems so obvious they're funded by people like the Koch family and others made insanely wealthy by oil. I am just happy that I can do my tiny part by having solar at my home. It's also really nice when crazy storms knock out the power to our entire neighborhood for hours and we still have power. 😁
Solar PV could also use thermal storage rather than batteries for night power.
As the grid becomes fragmented with solar installations, often with massive excesses in capacity, a thermal accumulator would be a cheap place to dump excess power.
It would obviously be electrically heated, but could be made fairly efficient using heat pumps for the first stage of heating, then direct electrical heating to get it up to whatever temperature the medium can withstand - potentially far hotter than solar thermal.
Using heat pumps also gives a supply of cold (well, a medium with its heat removed). This could aid in increasing Carnot efficiency.
Just a thought.
I've always thought every city should have its own battery buffer at the point its connected in to the grid, so that as well as helping to use cheaper solar energy it's also help making the supply more resilient.
I think water towers that you fill when power is high and demand is low which then can run small turbines at night would be far cheaper and involve fewer toxic chemicals.
@@Bacopa68 It's done at water power plants in reservoirs, standard thing, pump up the water when there's enough power (when water level isn't so high). Using water towers not useful, they have only minimal amount of water, so installing system would be
1-much more complicated
2-too expensive
Space solar will work great if coupled with an orbital ring.
Ron Niabati agreed
Also slightly cooling the earth
How did I miss this video? I love that you have a video on something I'm trying to look up. I chose this one first bc it's AWJ!
It's a great idea that has been around for a long time. Hopefully we can work out the kinks and get the show on the road.
What Elon says about power loss via conversion and transmission makes a lot of sense. What if we were to couple space based solar with a space elevator and use the cable as a transmission line? The you loose less than transmitting power via laser or microwave through an atmosphere. I know the space elevator has a lot of technical hurdles but its just a thought.
You should hear Elon's stance on space elevators.
@@brainmind4070 Man who owns rocketship company not thrilled with space elevators. Hmmm...
@@earshotmedia7629 I don't think it has anything to do with self interest. I think he just sees space elevators as impossible or impractical.
Even ignoring disaster potential the material design and deployment are quite a ways off. Like maybe 100 years or much more. We're just ready for maybe 3 miles\five kilometers up not 23,000 miles.
@@brainmind4070 I think you're right to a point, but I also think he's not going to pursue what's not in his best interests. Remember, vertically landing and reusing rocket stages was considered far more implausible not too long ago. If SpaceX and Musk were to earnestly pursue other means to access orbit, do you honestly think they wouldn't make some notable progress?
Excellent video Joe! I’m surprised that you didn’t mention space elevators as a platform for energy collection. This could send down power without as much loss through conversions. It could also be used to launch ancillary platforms.
I assume this wasn’t mentioned because we don’t have a material for the ribbon, and other ideas mentioned are currently feasible, but I know you often venture into theoretical stuff.
We are long, long way from having the materials science required for a solar elevator. Not to mention the insulation required. . .
there is a minor problem: the materials must have tinsel strengths on the order of not molecular bonds, but nuclear bonds.
Other than that, it's a really good idea.
(Nerds running through the halls of CalTech chanting, "The RingWorld is Unstable!")
@JoeScott Clearly the books you read as a child were different than the ones I read. Your content is the best!!!
Regarding the collector, as it is fixed to the earth it won't be able to see the array for 12 hrs a day (at night) so some sort of relay system will also be necessary adding to the complexity of the system.
I think Musk is right on this. It's not useful as a power source for earth, too expensive.
For lunar and space power it's worth considering.
yes, your statement is rock solid pun intended
Musk is not completely wrong. But... Let's not forget he is a capitalist selling batteries. The potential advantage is using an aluminium rectenna farm to collect the microwave energy instead of chemical complex PV cells plus literal tonnes of lithium-cobalt batteries. At $1 Trillion dollars not going to happen but we spend Billions of dollars every year moving diesel fuel around the globe to power generators to remote locations. Many of these are in environmentally sensitive areas. So more Diego Garcia than San Diego as a use case.
Musk is right......currently, in time the efficiency will improve and then it will be feasible.
@@SharpsKCYeah, there's no need to have only one ground station, either. You could have ground stations all over the place. The only limitation I could think of is that too shallow an angle would make the power signal's attenuation in the atmosphere cause too much loss.
Capitalism and profit maximization will always be a giant hurdle for things that are expensive, but absolutely need to be done to ensure the well-being of our civilization. This system is gonna be the death of us, if we don't start doing things because we need to and not only to make profits.
I remember a version of SimCity where you could build one of these orbital stations but sometimes the station would miss the receiver and start a fire in your city.
One of the iRobot stories also has that premise; the one where the robot thinks it's a prophet.
I kind of miss the old days of science fiction.
Hey Joe, I wanted to thank you for turning me on (well OK, you had a sponsor and you did a commercial, but still...) to Curiosity Stream. I really like it, it is terrific.
I really enjoy your videos. You won a new subscriber. Go Joe!
folks might want to take a look at the IssacArthur youtube channel, which focuses on advanced real world hypothetical technology and it's implications.
He can't pronounce his R's, and it's maddening.
@@kakarroto007 you get used to it...and he gets better over time.
"Advanced real world hypothetical technology" has got to be the most meaningless phrase I have ever seen
@@briandolge2622 Not really--being hypothetical in our universe (at our current level of knowledge), it could go from hypothetical to theoretical, and finally to actual technology, as we learn more about physics and the universe. (Our current Standard Model of Physics still doesn't incorporate gravity; it's "the Standard Model, plus gravity" [the Unified Field Theory that eluded Einstein still eludes us, and Quantum Mechanics and Relativity don't "play together," either]; we still have a lot to learn, but when we do, it will lead to new technologies.)
Space elevator, but the tether is also a wire so you can send the energy down to earth with one less conversion. Boom. I am a genius! gimme my nobel
Do a Google search for: "electrodynamic tether". Done correctly, the elevator itself could be a generator. PHYSICS!!
@@somewhat.random nice idea. But since it works by crossing the magnetic field of earth and a space elevator is standing still relatove to the surface of earth (and also on an equatorial orbit) it probably wont give you energy...
Don't mind me guys, just casually walking by to tell you that thsi will be a pipe dream as long as we have not nearly strong enough materials for such an elevator.
Except..... , you build the elevator step by step, like, every 5000 or 10000m you have a kind of high altitude airship wich you connect with another airship 5000 or 10000m above it. I guess that could work.
@@mandernachluca3774 An Airship with ELECTRICAL motors!!!! beautiful, everything is coming together
@@NoOne-fe3gc
We need to patent this XD.
I love the conceptual power ideas! Have you looked into tidal power?
Somewhere in my collection of books from my teens...
Colonies in Space, by T. A. Heppenheimer, 1977
Which covered the building of solar arrays from colonies in space and the Moon, using aluminum mined from the Moon.
I suppose there's no concern about heating of the atmosphere by these beams of high energy going through the atmosphere to a ground receiver???
James Perron ---yes, I fully agree: HEY ALL YOU SCIENTISTS, what's with that? (SBS would take energy that wasn't headed toward us & reredirect it to the EARTH. Isn't that a climate change concern?)
@@liondoor4554 Yes, it would be, but relative to the amount of energy that hits earth by the sun continously, that amount of extra-energy is very low.
Like he said, every hour the earth receives as much energy as the whole humanity uses in a year.
@@larsschellhas2670 I think you're wrong. With SBS you're breaking the thermodinamyc balance. We stop converting mass stored underground into energy that spreads onto the atmosphere, and start introducing that same amount of energy from the sky. It's exactly the same problem, the ecuation is exactly the same. The energy that you beam in will be 50% wasted in the atmosphere at the entrance (in best case scenario), and 50% used to motorize your fridge and then released into the atmosphere as heat. That's exactly what happens with fossil fuels: 80% of the fuel energy is wasted between the fuel elaboration and your car inefficiency (best case), and 20% is used to move your car, and then released into the atmosphere as heat (breaks and friction).
@@gabalfonsogmail Well, 1. that does not contradict with what I said.
2. The problem with fossil fuels is not the extra amount of energy we release into the athmosphere. As I said that amount is comparatively low in regard of the amount of energy which reaches us from the sun every day. At the current surface and atmospheric temperature, approximately the same amount of energy is released into space by low-frequency (infra red) light. The problem with fossil fuels are the additionally released greenhouse gas emissions, which determine the share of this low-frequency light, which is again absorbed/reflected back to earth by our atmosphere.
You would not have the same problem with SBSP.
It's supricing the number of people that never heard of 3:d and 4:th gen nuclear
No shit. Willful ignorance infuriates me.
Nuclear energy isn't exactly very important for the average every day person, while I believe it should be, calling it willful ignorance is a stretch.
hello,
thank you for talking about SSPS WPT, I am a researcher in Japan working on EOrbit SSPS concept for future satellite and Interplanetary mission. Love your video..... and definitely, SSPS will be future just we have to develop engineering perspective.
A couple of issues, a collector in orbit will pass through the earths shadow, a collector at a lagrange point can avoid the shadow but will operate as an inefficient solar sail and need station keeping ability.
Need to get massive amounts of stuff to space? Sounds like a job for launch loops.
You should do a video on them.
Hyperloop != launch loop. The hyperloop is panned by most of the scientists and engineers I've heard from as a bad idea. At the very least as long as Elon keeps trying to make it above ground. Even below ground it has issues but they might be fixable.
Isaac Arthur has a good video on Launch Loops, it's easy to find on CZcams but I'll try linking it below too.
Try #2: /watch?v=J1MAg0UAAHg
Any earthbound accalerators can't really work. You have to shoot stuff out at speeds around 17.500mph/28.000km/h. ANYTHING will burn up at that speed. And air will slow it down. So so will need to do it even faster. You can't build high enough to get out of atmosphere. Unless you build orbital rings or e.g. on the moon accelerators won't work.
First off it's "accelerators" not "accalerators", would you take people seriously if they cannot even use spellcheck? Second you should watch the video I linked it answers some of the points you made. Last if "ANYTHING" will burn up at those speeds how did the Apollo missions come home? They were going faster than that when they entered the atmosphere.
TLDR: Watch the video and learn about active supports.
Torsten Mautz
- please cut and paste the CZcams URL that Jcewazhere says. Or do a Google Search [Isaac Arthur launch loop] to get it. Something _inside_ the launch loop is traveling in a vacuum and traveling at super orbital speed with the return path next to it at just slightly above orbital speed. The centrifugal force supports the vacuum sheath and the maglev launcher riding on that. BTW a maglev launcher ('mass driver") will work o the Moon with no atmosphere.
Im curious how close something like this would get us to becoming a level 1 civilization. 🤔
The definition of a type one civilization is using all the energy on Earth, which is a bit of a grey area, because we probably want things like forests or oceans to be left alone to get sunlight and let nature run it's course. That said, we're not all that far from a type one civilization. I've seen numbers like 3/4ths teh way there, or type 0.75 though it's probably a logarithmic measurement so the final 0.25 is still a couple or few hundred years away, give or take, as our energy demand is still just a fraction of the solar energy that hits Earth.
Solar collectors in Earth's orbit could be part of that, but not absolutely essential.
My only worry with space-based collection is that it increases the total amount of sunlight falling on the planet, and we're already having problems with excess warmth. That would be a non-problem if it allowed us to reduce the footprint of CO₂ in our atmosphere.
Hey Joe, I am a longtime fan! Any updates on this topic? Also, I used this video as a resource for an article I wrote, for Toledo City Paper, called Solar Boom. I wanted to say thanks for putting out such great content!
Has there been any proven demonstration where we have beamed megawatts of power (as a laser or microwave) and successfully received it over 100 miles away and then converted it into a usable form? How does beaming that concentrated stream of energy affect the gasses in the atmosphere?
you do a lot of videos about the potential good these things can do but i would like to see you do the other side of the story the potential harm from misuse of these networks (,,,.)
Consider the absolute certainty that these systems would be weaponized. I've done the math on how hot could they make a spot on the ground: the rock vaporizes! Whether a gigawatt microwave beam a mile wide, or simple reflection of a thousand square miles of direct-able mirror, how could you not call that a weapon?
Also: consider how much extra heat would be added to the earth! If you think we have global warming now from digging up a little carbon, you need to consider how much more heat is going to be added by focusing extra solar heat on the ground? (There will some sort of power station: all power stations dump out waste heat, and the electronic devices all degrade the energy to heat; all the energy sent to earth becomes heat.) (and it does not matter whether the energy comes to earth via microwave or simple light from mirrors; it all becomes heat!)
The conversion loss from space based IS a big problem, probably the most efficient would be the reflection approach, concentrating the light to a more centralized collector, and likely that's to be more for overnight supplementation rather than creating a huge array for 24 hour use as it's not ever likely to be economical to count on it for daytime use over ground-based systems. Obviously the real solution will be the combo approach, of improved collection/conversion/storage. Whether that includes a space-based widget in the total machine will be a matter for the economics of the system.
Set up base on polar crater rim where there might be continuous sun. Choose a spot where there is continuous shade in the crater with ice detected nearby. There can't be too many of these spots (location, location, location), grab them first. With solar/ice you can make your own fuel (H2 / O2) as well as consume / breath as well. Good stepping stone location from there to Mars etc. and not 6 months or 2 years away if you forget your keys or something...
Could we just maybe build a few Thorium reactors to hold us over into the next evolution of energy technology and just get on with the business of sustainability?
Nobody has got these working commercially yet
@@keepitreal2902 czcams.com/video/XMuxjHLLk0E/video.html India is working on it!!
For the record, all 12,000 Starlink satellites can fit into an office building, so no, the sky will not be blotted out.
And how big is this office building?
Dunne Increwgear as big as earth, so I guess he’s wrong
Almighty Sosa300
Lol! I thought as much!!!
@@dunneincrewgear I think about 10*5*4 m
Mr. Boomguy
They must be the size of matchboxes...
11:55 I'm playing Anno 2205, building out my moon base while watching this.
Solar power has a similar problem as hydro power. Although water in rivers is flowing constantly (more or less) the demand is not constant. What some people came up with is to pump water up the hill to an artificial lake or cavern when they have excess power and use it when the demand is bigger. It's a kind of a battery. There is no problem storing solar power as it could do the same.
You didn't mention NASA's kilopower reactor when talking about colonizing the moon. Is there any specific reason for that? Seems a pretty reliable and fairly transportable way to get power there, day and night
Launching highly radioactive materials on a rocket... vs launching mirrors and photovoltaics. I'll grant RTGs are built to survive suborbital re-entry. But every launch has to surmount a mob of ignorant anti-nuclear protestors.
@Lenard Segnitz ... 10-4 on the “mob” of ignorant protesters, re: Launching (hard to get) plutonium RTGs. My take on RTGs is very simple: Fly ‘em if you got ‘em.
But, plutonium RTG tech is very different than NASA’s newer Uranium Kilopower Reactor.
@EctoMorpheus ... Agree that Joe should do a video on NASA’s newer Uranium Kilopower Reactor systems. I thought the smaller KPR was already proven in multiple sizes up to about 10,000 watt output over a year ago. And, that development work was proceeding now on 50,000 watt output uranium KPRs?
I would love to see an update on this.
Great video(s) Joe. Keep up the great work. I look forward to watching them all 👍.
PG&E should worry about making things work on Earth before trying to ruin space power... I've lived in 4 states and this is the worst utility company I've ever HEARD of.
Yes they are! They helped cause the wildfires in California because they wouldn't spend the money to properly maintain and repair their equipment. They also have caused multiple environmental problems, and have been successfully sued multiple times due to violations that caused health problems
Another possible problem: heating. Whatever the losses in the first two conversions, they will be expelled into space. Whatever the amount of power in the microwaves being beamed to earth, it will all be converted to heat eventually. Some will heat the water in the atmosphere like a microwave oven. Some will heat the receiving equipment and any objects caught in the spillover. Whatever energy that is lost in the last conversion from photos to electrons will be lost as heat, and whatever use is made of that electricity, it will eventually dissipate as heat.
Compare this to the solar photons heading for an earth-based solar panel. All of it's energy will be added to the earth whether it lands on ground, water, a solar panel, or other object. That solar gain is a fixed amount. Whatever we add from space solar is in addition to the sun's input. If that is a large number, we will get heating on the earth. The same would happen if we used mirrors to take sunlight that would not hit the earth and redirected it to hit the earth.
That heat addition is also true of nuclear, fossil fuels, and geothermal. Solar, wind, and tidal power all pull some of that ambient energy out and let us use it for our purposes before we return it to the environment. While we definitely want to reduce/eliminate fossil fuels because reducing the carbon dioxide (and other GHG's in the atmosphere) will trap less of the heat we are producing, we also need to know how much energy we are considering adding to the environment with space solar. Is it more or less than the amount we are eliminating from the dirty sources we replace with it?
Another thing to consider regarding space-based solar is the effect of focused energy on the atmosphere it needs to pass through in order to get to the ground receptors. Further, what is happening to the animals that may fly through the irradiated zone, or live beneath the collectors (unless, of course, there is 100% capture by the receptors... which... as if? Therefore... is space-based solar truly 'clean' energy if there is high impact to life and atmosphere?
2:33 not all nuclear reactors depends uranium, like T H O R I U M
Thorium reactors depend on uranium as well - thorium itself is not fertile and requires highly enriched uranium to get fission started.
A small little detail that's conveniently left out all too often.
Thorium is being transformed into Uranium233, I think think that's part of how it works. So technically, it does run on uranium ;)
@@thulyblu5486
Fossil fuels technically run on greenhouse gases too eh? Don't be silly.
@@totalermist can't you also instead of uranium use plutonium instead
@@pseudonymousbeing987 being technically correct - the best kind of correct ;)
"If you don't believe in climate change...you basically a flat-Earther..."
~Joe Scott 2019~
How much electricity was wasted by people replaying that repeatedly to see the subliminal word flash?
Pretty good analogy, actually ^^
... a pretty dickish thing to say.
@@asraharrison truth hurts
Joe, talk about using solar panel farms on the opposite side of the world and use of cables to bring it where it is needed instead of batteries to store them, I'm sure there must be studies around this idea
Astronauts building things on orbit is the best case scenario! We need to do more of that.
Every time you talk about elon musk, I think "oh this hasn't aged well".
We will have fusion long before this will be viewed as a somewhat reasonable method.
@Jackson DeCourcy
Yup, look up focus fusion :)
I not a big fan of fusion reactors, but I definitely agree with you on that.
The barbershop quartets "outerspace"! Was the highlight of my evening 😅
The nights in moon last two weeks...This is a problem for solar power...awesome facial expression 😂 another awesome video 🙌🏼
Did someone say giant frickin space lasers?!
no; sea bass with frickin lasers on their heads.
okay, they are bad tempered sea bass.
Coal and oil will be around for another 100 + years
Coal might be used as a methane feedstock for 100 years, but direct power-plant use of coal will likely die off within the next 50 years.
but what about global warming vs demand of energy
Back to horse and buggy !
Cant afford a tesla, and with California demanding tesla go union it will realy be out of reach.
When costs of extraction outweigh their economic output as other competing energy sources become cheaper and more widely available, it's not even going to be the next 50 years before oil begins getting phased out as a reliable energy source. Coal has already been getting killed off by natural gas.
Oil will still be around for centuries but its uses will likely involve making synthetic materials instead of as an energy source anymore.
9:55 and then don't forget converting it from DC to AC for transmission across grid, then from HV to LV, then to 120V. Each of those conversions loses efficiency too
A ring of solar panels around the moon would resolve day night issue.
People are worried about Climate change and 5G but they want to send energy to Earth via microwave....lol
Yep..
This is GOD tier content, How did you grow T_T so fast
Found him at around 100k and his content was God tier then lol, glad he's been growing so fast
WorldLie Things: Gaming he made a video about severed heads.
I am but a mere mortal.
@@joescott but in the way a lvl 80 fallout 4 player character is "mortal"
It's all fun and games until a commercial airliner accidentally flies through that energy beam. ;-)
Can you do a video on the Apollo 18 conspiracies? Would love to hear your breakdown of its origin, supporters, and detractors.
TALL Pylons on or near the north and south poles of the Moon, will raise solar panels high enough to produce power 24/7
We must construct additional pylons.
Or construct a track around the moon that the solar panels could ride on. The slow rotation means the speeds would not be excessive.
Liquid fluoride thorium reactors? That’s definitely something you should look into!!!
he has
theoysterman1 in depth I seen the older ones I just don’t see why it wasn’t brought up in this video.
John T ... fluoride
I would love to see a video on molten salt solar plants
8:19 that looks a hell of a lot like how a reflective telescopes mirrors are set up
4:18
Yeah, nobody will weaponize that thing ever!
:D
Great sarcasm. But another problem with solar satellite power systems is that they would be very vulnerable to attack. How would we protect a large solar satellite power station from a missile with explosive war head or even using kinetic energy of a direct hit?
@@stuarthirsch simple:
you come at me? you get the wrath of 200 square miles of solar energy!
And single satellite will cost as much as one big solar power plant and produce 0.0001% of energy.
The economics change dramatically when the photovoltaics are fabricated from asteroid or lunar material in-situ.
I've always wondered why heat exchange systems aren't discussed on powering moon bases. There is a wide differential in temperatures in the light/shade sides that could cheaply generate huge amounts of energy using piping, heat exchangers and steam (or other working fluids) turbines. The process remains the same when the dark side enters the light and the light becomes dark. First colonies could produce the piping, burying arrays underground (insulating properties) and have the moonscape dotted with collectors and alternately heat diffusers. Thousand of miles of piping would be required to utilize most of the moon, but one would start at the poles and as production increases the systems would move closer and closer to the equator. Unlimited electrical power would then be used to operate magnetic rail launchers and lunar resources could be utilized for man's ability to expand into the solar system.
I think it may not be practical right now, but as we develop space space resource procurement and manufacturing it will become hugely important.