GENERATOR electricity space transformed from a fantasy into a serious perspective. Scientists continue to develop it.
For a long time, the concept — first developed by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the 1920s — served as an inspiration for writers.
However, a century later, scientists are making great strides to make the concept a reality. The European Space Agency saw the potential and is now exploring ways to fund projects.
They predict that the first resource we will get from space will be “emitted energy”.
Climate change is the biggest challenge right now, so there’s a lot at stake. From rising global temperatures to changing weather patterns, the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world.
Addressing this challenge will require radical changes in the way we generate and consume energy. Renewable energy technologies have developed dramatically in recent years, with improvements in efficiency.
But those sources don’t produce energy constantly.
Wind and solar generators produce energy only when the wind blows or the sun shines, while we need electricity all the time, every day.
Ultimately, we need a way to store energy on a large scale before we can turn to renewable sources.
Space advantages
One possible way around this problem is to generate power from the sun in space.
There are many advantages of this method. Space solar power plants can orbit the Sun 24 hours a day. Earth’s atmosphere also absorbs and reflects some of the sunlight, so solar cells above the atmosphere will receive more sunlight and produce more energy.
But one of the major challenges to overcome is how to assemble, launch and operate such a massive structure. It may be necessary to build a solar farm with an area of 10 square kilometers or the equivalent of 1,400 football fields.
Using lightweight materials is also important, as the biggest costs come when launching the station into space with a rocket. One proposed solution is to develop thousands of smaller satellites that will be combined and configured to form a large solar generator.
In 2017, researchers at the California Institute of Technology came up with a design for a modular power plant, made up of thousands of ultralight solar panels.
Read also: Lifebuoy x MNC Peduli invites society to share the goodness with hair donations, save the date!
