Oil prices have skyrocketed over the last year, reminding many nations of their dependence on earthly energy resources. Power planets on Planet Earth now generate a total of about 3.2 billion watts of energy. By the end of the 21st century the world population's energy demand may reach 20 trillion watts.
Are we setting ourselves up for an energy crisis, where only the rich can avoid energy starvation?
Russian scientists see a possible space-based energy solution to this problem. Based on the studies conducted by scientists in different countries, Russian specialists have proposed power plants in lunar and near-Earth orbit that will be able to generate cheap energy.
The plan calls for huge solar arrays located on the Moon's surface and in near-Earth orbit. These arrays will have built-in antennas with a phased grill to provide simultaneous formation and precise focusing of electromagnetic energy beams within a centimeter frequency range.
An example of a reusable space transportation vehicle.
These beams would be received on Earth by receiving antennas, which resemble a steel net hanging on a high mast. The receiving antennas will also convert the beams into regular electric energy.
Power production on the Moon could contribute energy by beaming electromagnetic rays to Earth, as well as by supplying fuel for earthbound nuclear power plants. A synthesis of helium 3 and deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) can significantly simplify a nuclear reaction and thus considerably boost the development of nuclear power plants on Earth.
There is one glitch: Earth resources of helium 3 are limited. The Moon, on the contrary, has an abundance of the isotope. In the near future, this element could be shipped to Earth to become a source of energy three times cheaper than the current nuclear-generated electric energy.
Russian organizations, like the Radio Institute, NIITP (Scientific-Research Institute for Precise Instruments) and TsNIIMash (Central Scientific-Research Institute for Machine Building) have proposed various studies and designs for such a space-based energy system.
One company, Marengo Ltd., has tapped into both Russian and international expertise in the field to develop not only space-based power plants, but also a transportation system. Founded in 1993, Marengo is based in Korolev, near Moscow and is
a subsidiary of RKK Energia, the company that leases and operates the Mir space station.
The supporting transportation system
One of the major obstacles standing in the way of the creation of an extraterrestrial energy system is the lack of cheap and reliable transportation to support the intensive flow of materials that would be necessary to build space- and lunar-based power plants.
To meet this requirement, Marengo has developed the Ekranoplane.
According to Nikolai Abrosimov, Marengo president, Ekranoplane is a versatile system that could significantly handle cargo flow from Earth to orbit and back at a considerably lower price than existing expendable launch vehicles. It is also a very reliable and ecologically safe system.
Ekranoplane can deliver up to 60 tons of cargo to low Earth orbit. Scientists say the system could be built in about seven years for about $18 billion.
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"Since Ekranoplane can launch into orbit all kinds of satellites and spacecraft, it can...[pay for itself in]...just in a few years from the beginning of its operation," Abrosimov said in an exclusive interview with SPACE.com.
Ekranoplane will also support the construction and operation of a space-based
asteroid-warning system, the removal of hazardous waste into deep space and the creation of an Earth-Moon transportation system.
Moon-based energy and transportation infrastructure
According to Abrosimov, the Moon has all the materials necessary for the development and building of a transportation and energy infrastructure that will support spacecraft and launch vehicle production. Launching payloads from the Moon is also 20 times less expensive than those lofted from Earth.
"The conditions for the industrial manufacturing are better on the Moon than on Earth," said Abrosimov. "Deep vacuum, less gravity and more energy output from solar arrays will make the cost of production much lower than on Earth."
"Besides, it makes sense to place [into] Moon and Earth orbit storage [for] fuel manufactured [from] elements that have been extracted from Moon soil," said Abrosimov. "Such storage could support not only space power plant operations but also human and robotic voyages into deep space."
The best type of engine to power the Earth-Moon express shuttle spacecraft would be liquid-fuel rocket engines, said Abrosimov. For fuel, it would mix liquid oxygen as an oxidizer and hydrogen with methanol, along with powdered aluminum or silicon, extracted
from the Moon's soil, or from reserves in lunar orbit.
Slower, but powerful solar and nuclear ion-powered engines would be used when it is necessary to move huge shipments in space and if the duration of flight is not an issue.
Price tag is not a small one
Marengo estimated that the proposed space-based power infrastructure -- able to supply Earth with 20 trillion watts yearly -- could be built in 50 to 60 years. The price of its creation would be between $ 1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. Most of these expenditures, Abrosimov said, will be repaid when the new space transportation system designed to support the infrastructure goes into service, as well as by the commercial utilization of new technologies developed in the course of achieving this revolutionary space-based energy project.
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