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Buzz Aldrin’s Answer To The Louisiana Oil Spill

Posted by majestic on June 11, 2010

buzzaldrin-unspillable

Howard Bloom, one of the stars of the Disinformation TV Series, sent us this press release:

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, has proposed an answer to the Louisiana oil spill. It’s solar energy harvested in space, known in the space community as Space Solar Power.

“The timing of the oil catastrophe,” says Aldrin, “is a great opportunity for re-evaluating solar energy from space.”

We’ve been harvesting solar power in space and sending it to Earth since 1962, when the first commercial satellite, Telstar, was launched and began transmitting energy harvested by the solar panels studded all over its beach-ball-like surface. Today, the space solar power harvesting business is a quarter of a trillion dollar industry. We call it “the commercial satellite industry.” That industry uses space solar power transmitted to earth for everything from satellite radio and television to direction finding via GPS.

The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has committed  $27 million to space solar power and has plans for a satellite capable of powering 300,000 homes. JAXA says it has the backing of 15 other nations in its effort. And Russia, China, and India are all working on space solar power development.

Says Howard Bloom, head of The Space Development Steering Committee, “Space solar power means no more Louisiana oil spills. No more carbon in the atmosphere. No more nuclear waste. No more energy wars. No more nations hogging resources and driving up prices. And no more villages in the hinterlands of Africa and Asia kept in poverty by the cost of running landlines hundreds of miles to reach them.”

There are currently four American commercial companies seeking capital to make space solar a reality: Solaren, the Space Island Group, Space Energy Inc, and Managed Energy Technologies LLC. One of those firms, Solaren, has a power purchase agreement with the California’s Pacific Gas and Electric and anticipates being able to begin delivery of solar power from space by 2016.

Take the load off the earth. Drill up not down. Space Solar Power.

____________

Howard Bloom
Author of: The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism (”an extraordinary book, exhilaratingly-written and masterfully-researched. I couldn’t put it down.”) James Burke; The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History (”mesmerizing”-The Washington Post); and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st Century (”reassuring and sobering”-The New Yorker), and How I Accidentally Started The Sixties (”a monumental, epic, glorious literary achievement.” Timothy Leary).
Former Core Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute; Former Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University. Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; Founder, Space Development Steering Committee; Founder: The Group Selection Squad; Founding Board Member: Epic of Evolution Society; Founding Board Member, The Darwin Project; Member Of Board Of Governors, National Space Society; Founder: The Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International Society for Human Ethology, Scientific Advisory Board Member, Lifeboat Foundation; Advisory Board Member: The Buffalo Film Festival. Special advisor: Retirement Investment Industry Association.
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  • E.B. Wolf

    Sounds as good as any solution I've come across.
    A satellite that can power 300k homes you say?
    What's the price tag, and when can it be operational?

  • Alan P

    What's the price? What's the break-even time? How much would maintenance cost? What happens when the satellite breaks down?

  • Jeffery I

    We don't use oil to power homes. The solution to the problem is more electric cars and more mass transit.

  • Hornet Montana

    Why not solar panels based on the Earth?

  • radiac

    Potentially a great idea, in that space solar is far more efficient than solar panels here on earth. But with out track record…how long before this ends up as space junk?

  • dumbsaint

    I like the idea of covering the moon in solar panels. If only for my own selfish reason that I think it would look bad-ass:

    http://www.physorg.com/news194706618.html

  • http://huppshua.tumblr.com Joshua

    How does this work? Satellites powered by the sun power the earth? How is this energy transfered??? Electrons need mediums. You can't just beam all of that power down… or can you? I understand sending signals, data, information–but that stuff is simple to condense.

    Someone educate me; I thought I had a grasp on physics.

  • Cyril_ODST

    only thing is, is that Gas and Oil companies will not allow something like this. The reason we don't have electric cars, is because Oil and Gas companies forced a buyout of those companies, and then shut them down. They make too much money stripping the Earth of all resources to be hasseled with allowing people to decide to use electric. EVERY HOME IN THE WORLD could be running on solar power. The Government could install solar panels on cars, planes, boats, EVERYTHING, but they won't cause they are stupid. The whole planet is stupid

  • Liam

    The energy is convereted into electromagnetic radiation (specifically, radio waves) and is beamed down to earth where we then convert it back
    It could even be possible to use laser power instead, but that has the associated risks of, you know, burning stuff with lasers by mistake

  • Liam

    We use oil to power many powerstations, which we in turn use to power homes

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/AIXZY77HO2L754QW5PZITIAZGQ JustinH

    I like this idea also, but I think they won't be able to rely on robots quite as much as they imagine. A small colony on the moon would be fairly easy to pull off with the energy from the solar panels, not to mention water harvested from the lunar north pole. It could even be relatively self sufficient by using hydroponics for the cultivation of food. This would also be the infrastructure necessary for procuring Hydrogen 3 if fusion power ever turns out. Not to mention be an excellent launchpad for the exploration of the rest of the solar system.

    Its just that no one wants to pay for it, the governments of the world only spend around 25 billion USD on space exploration. About 16 billion of that comes from the US, which is only 0.14% of GDP. If the United States was serious about energy independence and tackling its economic problems it would invest in something like this. Imagine being able to go from an oil importer to an exporter, not to mention all the jobs which would be created by such an effort. And the power will never stop flowing as long as the sun still shines and maintenance needs are met.

    But good luck finding politicians in America which could see such a project through.

  • Anonymous

    Catch with that technology. One micro meteorite and, there are hundreds of millions of them and, you have an energy beam gusher in space casting a lethal swath upon the ground. Sorry folks, but greed and taking the lowest tender, combined with natural occurrences and probability, make it an incredibly risky thing to do.
    Not to mention, who is going to trust anyone with what is basically weaponising space, WMD that can tracelessly set fire to any part of the planet. Hint, very high energy microwaves can quite readily set fire to most flammable things and when your talking about transmitting energy collected in space to the earth, you are talking, very, very, high energy transmissions, at levels not yet tested in open atmosphere.

  • rtb61

    Catch with that technology. One micro meteorite and their are hundreds of millions of them and, you have an energy beam gusher in space, casting a lethal swath upon the ground. Sorry folks, but greed and taking the lowest tender, combined with natural occurrences and probability make it an incredibly risky thing to do.
    Not to mention, who is going to trust anyone with what is basically weaponising space, WMD that can tracelessly set fire to any part of the planet. Hint, very high energy microwaves can quite readily set fire to most flammable things and when your talking about transmitting energy collected in space you are talking, very, very, high energy transmission at levels not yet tested in open atmosphere.

  • rtb61

    Catch with that technology. One micro meteorite and, there are hundreds of millions of them and, you have an energy beam gusher in space casting a lethal swath upon the ground. Sorry folks, but greed and taking the lowest tender, combined with natural occurrences and probability, make it an incredibly risky thing to do.
    Not to mention, who is going to trust anyone with what is basically weaponising space, WMD that can tracelessly set fire to any part of the planet. Hint, very high energy microwaves can quite readily set fire to most flammable things and when your talking about transmitting energy collected in space to the earth, you are talking, very, very, high energy transmissions, at levels not yet tested in open atmosphere.