Comments on: SPS-ALPHA: The First Practical Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array http://blog.nss.org/?p=3108 Blogging for the creation of a spacefaring civilization Sun, 19 May 2013 07:49:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Maury Markowitz http://blog.nss.org/?p=3108&cpage=1#comment-19717 Maury Markowitz Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:35:31 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=3108#comment-19717 I'm still waiting for John to explain how he's going to avoid causing a Kessler syndrome in GEO. For those of you who are not aware of the problem, GEO is filled with junk that periodically crashes into working satellites. When that happens, new junk is spalled off that crashes into other satellites. Although the problem isn't as bad as it is at LEO (or sun synch), its still bad. Bad enough that Donald Kessler (yes, THAT guy), has essentially stated that SPS's are a huge risk. Or to quote him exactly: "Some of the most environmentally dangerous activities in space include large constellations such as those initially proposed by the Strategic Defense Initiative in the mid-1980s, large structures such as those considered in the late-1970s for building solar power stations in Earth orbit" I sent John all the figures, and his response suggested that he abandoned LEO-to-GEO spiralling launches for that reason. But even if you go straight to GEO, at enormous cost, you're only delaying the inevitable. We're talking about *very* short expected lifetimes, and then *pow*. I find it ironic that the NSS would support a project who's successful placement would almost be certain to render future manned space exploration too risky to contemplate. I’m still waiting for John to explain how he’s going to avoid causing a Kessler syndrome in GEO.

For those of you who are not aware of the problem, GEO is filled with junk that periodically crashes into working satellites. When that happens, new junk is spalled off that crashes into other satellites. Although the problem isn’t as bad as it is at LEO (or sun synch), its still bad. Bad enough that Donald Kessler (yes, THAT guy), has essentially stated that SPS’s are a huge risk. Or to quote him exactly:

“Some of the most environmentally dangerous activities in space include large constellations such as those initially proposed by the Strategic Defense Initiative in the mid-1980s, large structures such as those considered in the late-1970s for building solar power stations in Earth orbit”

I sent John all the figures, and his response suggested that he abandoned LEO-to-GEO spiralling launches for that reason. But even if you go straight to GEO, at enormous cost, you’re only delaying the inevitable. We’re talking about *very* short expected lifetimes, and then *pow*.

I find it ironic that the NSS would support a project who’s successful placement would almost be certain to render future manned space exploration too risky to contemplate.

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