SPS (Solar Power Satellite) Program of the 70's/80's

[blackstar]

I swear I've seen an animation of that thing in action years ago. It would roll the channels and crossmembers, cut them, and spot weld them. Truss would come out like a toothpaste dispenser.

There were animations. There was also a mockup that I think was 1/3 or 1/4 scale. Of course it's a big step from that to flight hardware. I'm not sure if the mockup even worked. And welding in space can have issues, such as getting rid of the heat. And even if this stuff had worked, would it produce consistent quality? It's like that old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This could roll out a hundred meters of perfect truss and then make one tiny mistake and maybe that truss would buckle.

 

[blackstar]

The movie Elysium, which comes out this summer, has a giant space station inspired by artwork done by NASA in the 1970s depicting stations that would support solar power satellites:

http://io9.com/why-elysium-director-neill-blomkamp-explains-why-he-lov-472563081

http://io9.com/screencaps-reveal-the-wonder-and-squalor-of-neill-blomk-471889330

 

[blackstar]

Here's the best example:

http://gizmodo.com/the-real-life-buildings-used-to-sell-elysiums-dystopia-487701177

 

[Michel Van]

I swear I've seen an animation of that thing in action years ago. It would roll the channels and crossmembers, cut them, and spot weld them. Truss would come out like a toothpaste dispenser.

do mean this film from 1978 by World Research Inc. ?

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jVxPCECjz8&feature=player_embedded

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40V5gB3R4jI&feature=endscreen



sorry that's all on youtube

 

[blackstar]

I wrote about some of this last week:

http://thespacereview.com/article/2297/1

The movie "Libra" is really interesting. I was completely unaware of that. Here's a summary:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/2013/02/libra-the-21st-century-libertarian-space-colony/

 

[Michel Van]

i found the entire movie here
https://www.avgeeks.com/wp2/libra-1978/

 

[blackstar]

Man will not conquer the stars wearing plaid.

 

[blackstar]

I'm trying to find more information on this Grumman "Beam Builder" from 1977. In particular, I need to find high quality photos of it, preferably in color. If anybody has any information, please let me know.

 

[cluttonfred]

Man will not conquer the stars wearing plaid.

Unless it's a Scottish space program...?

 

[blackstar]

The Beam Builder (B2)

 

[Grey Havoc]

A few SPS related posts from some other threads, including the Star-Raker thread:

Much thanks to ozmosis for eventually getting me the 18 MB PDF.

You can grab it HERE.

I also found mention of the STAR-RAKER in two other NASA documents after googling SWAT 201 turbofan ramjet:

NASA CR 3321: Satellite Power Systems (SPS) Concept Definition Study – Volume IV: Transportation Analysis

NASA TM 58238: Satellite Power System: Concept Development and Evaluation Program – Volume VII: Space Transportation

I used Acrobat to cut out only the parts of those documents concerning STAR-RAKER.

You can find them HERE and HERE

Much thanks to ozmosis for eventually getting me the 18 MB PDF.

You can grab it HERE.

FYI, for those with access aka AIAA-1979-895. While the dark graphics are hard to view, text is at least preserved and can be selected. Whole doc is 1.4MB.

The space shuttle project thread, http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1928.0, had a brief discussion of ideas to put passenger modules in the cargo bay. I thought it might be interesting to try and capture some more details in a separate thread.

I believe some concepts were originally created in the 1970s, eg I've seen the following reference cited: Steve Durst, 1979, "The Space Shuttle as a Passenger Vehicle", Preprint AAS 79-317. Others were from the early to mid 80s, eg the November 1985 Popular Mechanics article: 'Space Vacation 1995' (starts on p59) mentions proposals by Society Expeditions, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell and Lockheed. A couple of illustrations from the article are attached.

Does anyone have any more details / art work of any of these concepts?

P.S. I'm aware none of them would have made sense commercially etc!

Does anyone have any more details / art work of any of these concepts?

Rockwell did some design work on such things, but seemed to aim most of it at the obviouis forthcoming need to launcha whole lot of orbital construction workers to work on the solar power satellites and such. I've got some simple diagrams around here, but I bet someone else gets to 'em sooner.

P.S. I'm aware none of them would have made sense commercially etc!

The Shuttle was supposed to have a flight cost of $25 million. Carrying fifty passengers, that's half a million each. Compare to the quarter million people are willing to pay (hopefully!) to fly three minute sof zero-G on Virgin Galactic, or the $20 million to go to the ISS.

Of course, the shuttle was also supposed to have a turnaround time of two weeks. So, some things didn;t turn out quite as planned.

The attached diagram is from one of NASAs late 1970s Solar Power Station studies.

Lunar Resources Utilizations for Space Construction. Vol. 1,2 & 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

ntrs.nasa.gov

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

ntrs.nasa.gov

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

ntrs.nasa.gov

(NTRS links now dead unfortunately)

Basically a Space Shuttle and External Tank, on top of a LOX/Propane first stage. The first stage would have splashed down in the ocean after slowing down using Dimethylhydrazine powered landing engines. There is a irritating error in the launch animation, showing the Shuttle staging without the External Tank. But other than that - its a great article.

EDIT - The comments are well worth the read. Dimethylhydrazine is so reactive, that when used in labs it is stored as a solution in hydrochloric acid.

 

[publiusr]

China looks to put a 10,000 ton SPSS monster using CZ-9s. Good for them

Deployment tech

AIAA Aerospace Research Central

 

[Byeman]

China looks to put a 10,000 ton SPSS monster using CZ-9s. Good for them

And they will learn the fallacy first hand. Current terrestrial photovoltaic cells make SPSS not feasible since they can produce as much power as the receiver array can.

 

[publiusr]

Their space ladder is a bit more worrisome. Icing loads from the ITCZ

 

[numbers station]

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17476449

 

[numbers station]

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17476486

 

[numbers station]

FUTURISTIC - ARTIST CONCEPTS : NASA : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Artist Concept of spacecraft of the future. Non-budgeted vehicles which may or may not someday become a reality, used as visual aids for Boeing Power-Sat...

archive.org

 

[Grey Havoc]

This late 2000s paper regarding the SPS program may be of some interest:

Solar Power Satellites: Historical Perspectives with a Look to the Future - CORE

core.ac.uk

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19879104.pdf

Solar Power Satellites: Historical Perspectives with a Look to the Future​

By Joseph R. Laracy, Damien Bador, Danielle Adams, Annalisa Weigel, Richard Chambers, Daniel Kwon, David Proudfoot, Shen Qu and Ted Shoepe

Abstract​

Since the late 1960s, there has been interest in the United States, and later in other nations, to capture solar energy in space and efficiently transmit it back to Earth. Starting with his seminal paper in 1968, Dr. Peter Glaser began architecting a prototype system that was further explored by the US Department of Energy in the Concept Development and Evaluation Program. This initial study showed that the project was very ambitious and fraught with technical, social, and economic uncertainties. Energy economics and the lack of a reliable, high frequency space launch capability brought most research to a halt in the 1990s. This paper proposes a rational technical strategy to refocus Solar Power Satellite (SPS) research. It suggests a 30 year timeline for program milestones and analyzes potential technical performance. Real options analysis is used to manage uncertainty and permits the exploration of possible futures that are dependent on launch costs and electricity market prices. We propose that the U.S. can make progress toward implementing a small scale SPS system within several decades if work is begun now on technology development and on addressing societal concerns

Topics: solar power satellite (SPS), United States
Year: 2007
DOI identifier: 10.2514/6.2007-6057
OAI identifier: oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/84442
Provided by: DSpace@MIT
Downloaded from http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/84442/1/CP_070918_Laracy-Bador-etal_AIAASpace.pdf

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/solar-power-satellite-launchers-uslp-06.32135/

Regarding Boeing's 'Big Onion', aka the Low Cost Heavy Lift Vehicle Concept, in particular, some details can be found in these old threads:

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/boeing-nova-class-designs-1963.3722/

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/capsule-like-ssto.6171/

 

[publiusr]

I wonder if some commonality was being sought with the Orbital Antenna Farm concept, space based radars and space-based radio astronomy dishes.

Solaris is the latest attempt

 

[publiusr]

Newer concepts

Space solar power project ends first in-space mission with successes and lessons

One year ago, Caltech's Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1) launched into space to demonstrate and test three technological innovations that are among those necessary to make space solar power a reality.

phys.org

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1w-Ty-8Kfs

 

[Deleted member 4286]

So many Aerospace books from decades ago were full of illustrations of these SPS concepts but I can barely find any illustrations on the internet, if anyone has any to contribute to this thread I would be very thankful.

One of the first Boeing proposals

 

[Deleted member 4286]

One of the first Boeing proposalsView attachment 721599

 

[Deleted member 4286]

 

[Archibald]

SpaceX Aims To Haul More Than A Million Tons Of Cargo In A Year Says Musk

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has shared more details for the company's plans to develop and launch the world's largest rocket.

wccftech.com

What is interesting is that SpaceX flight rates objectives to sustain a Mars colony - are broadly comparable to the NASA flight rates in support of Space Based Solar Power - see attached document.

SPACE BASED SOLAR POWER
-Initial estimates of NASA Solar Power Satellite (SPS) system indicate that an operational power generating satellite will weight about 100 million kilograms.
-The NASA/JSC Scenario ‘B’ identifies a 112 operational satellite total program with an annual installation rate varying between one and seven satellites per year. This demanding scenario will require hundreds of launches of a 400 metric ton payload capability launch vehicle for each satellite installation.
-The NASA Satellite Power System Scenario B – no lunar base nor mining - identified a 112 satellite installations in geosynchronous orbit with an annual installation rate of between 1 and 7 satellites per year.
-An equivalent program of 4 satellites a year over 28 years was selected for transportation system analysis. Recognizing that for a given vehicle system, which can be identified at this time, a 28 year period of operation that neglects technology advancements and potential improved versions would not appear logical. For purposes of amortizing fleet costs, a 14 year operational period was assumed and all costs reflect the program elements through the midpoint of the SPS implementation program.
-A Kennedy Space Center launch site was assumed and a 477 km circular delivery orbit inclined at 31° inclination was selected. Since four satellites are being constructed simultaneously in the equivalent scenario, four’ orbits, all iuclined at 31°, but spaced 90° apart, were selected as the delivery points. Two daily launch opportunities to eack delivery orbit are available with the southerly opportunity about 3 1/3 hours after the northerly launch.
-A vehicle net payload in the neighborhood of 400 metric tons was selected and based on a nominal satellite mass of 100,000 metric tons, an annual launch rate of 3125 and 1875 for GEO and LEO construction, respectively, for mass limited flights results. GEO constriction location requires 12 launches a day based on using a 52 week per year, 5 day a week launch operations schedule. The corresponding rate to support LEO construction is a maximum of 8 launches daily.
-The launch operations plan is based on a 5 day a week, three shift activity. The extra two day period each week will provide an opportunity to perform unscheduled equipment maintenance as required, and to achieve make-up launches as needed. It should be noted that the upper stage transports the payload to the final destination in the 477.5 km circular orbit. The upper stage remains on-orbit for one day and then is deorbited for an earth return.

 

[Deleted member 4286]

SpaceX Aims To Haul More Than A Million Tons Of Cargo In A Year Says Musk

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has shared more details for the company's plans to develop and launch the world's largest rocket.

wccftech.com

What is interesting is that SpaceX flight rates objectives to sustain a Mars colony - are broadly comparable to the NASA flight rates in support of Space Based Solar Power - see attached document.

But , now, nearly 50 years after these fist studies, a SPSwould be much lighter ; 5000-10000 metric tons vs 100000 tons?

 

[Deleted member 4286]

 

[Grey Havoc]

A directly related project:

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/grumman-advanced-space-construction-base-concept.16399/

 

[publiusr]

Big plans

South Korea plans 120 GW space solar project

Two Korean research institutes are designing the 2.2 km × 2.7 km Korean Space Solar Power Satellite project with the aim of providing approximately 1 TWh of electricity to the Earth per year. The proposed system should use 4,000 sub-solar arrays of 10 m × 270 m, made out of thin film roll-out...

www.pv-magazine.com