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by xp84
765 days ago
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No maintenance? Really? One ‘aiming’ motor goes bad, and this thing could easily fry a long strip of the earth when it loses its lock on its ground station. I don’t think I want such an Elon Musk type of promise as “no maintenance” in this situation. Everything needs maintenance, and while space does different things to machines than air does, they still wear. |
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Ground solar panels need relatively frequent cleaning due to dust, weather, and plants/animals in some areas. In space the biggest maintenance costs are gone. With the $10-$100/kg launch costs refueling would not be that expensive. Micrometeorites may be an issue, but if the rate of micrometeorite impact is low enough it may not be a concern. The 60-year costs of ground solar panels are actually worse than a large nuclear power plant due to the maintenance, so it is a significant part.
Space solar may not be effective initially, but I think it could have its place similar to SMRs. Power could be generated 24/7. The ability to allocate power as needed across a whole hemisphere would allow us to optimize power grids without megatons of power cables. These could also beam power to moon bases or even mars bases eventually.
Also bringing up Musk was unnecessary. The space industry is bigger than one person and many of "his" ideas predate his involvement with the industry and have teams of many scientists and engineers doing the actual work. It would be a shame to throw out ideas that could facilitate human progress simply because we didn't like one personality.