Energy Crisis and Cosmonautics
- Paper number
IAC-05-C3.1.07
- Author
Prof. Vitaly Melnikov, Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Russia
- Coauthor
Prof. Vladimir Komkov, Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Russia
- Coauthor
Prof. Vladimir Senkevich, Russia
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The objective of this study is to outline reasons for giving the top priority to the problem of developing space-based power plants in response to the fuel and energy crisis, as well as to justify new solutions in the delopment of solar arrays for in-orbit power stations generating efficiency of the order of 1 GW. The demand for power as the critical factor driving the evolution of civilization, as well as the crisis in power engineering that is expected in the nearest future are the major causes making necessary to pool the capabilities of cosmonautics and find out the solution for the energy problems. By solving the energy crisis problem through space technologies we would simultaneously mitigate the man-caused effects on the environment ecology and eliminate the weather destabilization factors. The nuclear power engineering, as an alternative to solar power engineering, possess a number of shortcomings: the nuclear thermoemission power plants of 100 kW being developed for 50 years have not advanced beyond the laboratory research; the recent studies show that the key design concept of combining heat release and power generation functions in the thermoemission reactor-generator is not correct, because it causes the heat release element to swell fast and makes impossible to generate a resource. As a result, all started design and technological elaborations have to re-considered; the development of pace-based nuclear power engineering is attended with the development of the ecologically hazardous ground and space infrastructure; the thermoemission reactor-generator specific power (kW/kg), when applied to specific tasks, is more than 10 times lower against that offered by the solar power system. The frameless space structures formed by centrifugal forces combined with the amorphous silicon film photovoltaic cells would give the possibility to develop high-performance solar arrays offering a set of important advantages as compared to their framed analogs: 10-time increase in specific power against the most efficient analogs not less than 1000 W/kg; - the best transport configuration; the reliable, low power in-orbit deployment; the lowest cost, because of saving the need to develop and test the rigid frame and owing to the decrease of the amorphous silicon structure cost by 10 against the analogs with mass production; improved radiation resistance. Such solar arrays could be employed on spacecraft sized from small satellites to solar power stations of the order of 1GW. Work on the amorphous silicon solar arrays under development is based on the experience gained from the deployment of the film structure formed by centrifugal forces in the vicinity of space station Mir during the well-known space experiment "Znamya". Efforts of many companies have to be pulled together to achieve the most effective return. The study has been done with the support of the International Science and Technology Center, Project 2620.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-C3.1.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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