After announcing the creation of the first dark solar panel, China will throw one 1 kilometer solar panel to space that will achieve something impossible. A project that has not been carried out before due to the technical challenges and safety risks involved in energy transmission.
Now, China is now able to do this after testing hot air balloon technology and the ongoing construction of a receiving station in the city Chongqing to continue the investigation.
Another problem that has prevented these types of initiatives from being implemented sooner is logistics. Until now, the costs of sending thousands of solar panels into space have made the profitability of any dedicated solar power plant unfeasible.
But this context will change dramatically with large reusable rockets such as Starship or the CZ-9as happened with the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and the satellite constellation Starlink.
China will populate space with solar photovoltaics: it is already launching its first solar panel
China has in his plans the construction of one massive solar power plant in space via its next CZ-19 rocketthe reaction of Chinese government A SpaceX starship. A senior Chinese scientist described the project as “moving the dam out of the… Three gorges“, according to an article in the South China Morning Mail.
“We are working on a project that is as important as moving the dam Three gorges to a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the Tierra“, said Long Lehaorocket scientist Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).
Longwho took part in a conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)said it is “an incredible project that we are looking forward to.” However, its launch is dependent on the availability of new super-heavy rockets such as the CZ-9because it is equivalent to “installing a 1 km solar panel” in space.
The dam of the Three gorgesthe project they compared the solar power plant in space to is located in the middle of the Yangtze River. It has a production capacity of 112 TWh. As for the CZ-9is a huge state missile being developed in the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
It has 30 methane engines and is designed for landing. Moreover, it has a design similar to Starship and an equally impressive capacity. By 2030, it will be able to deliver 100 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.
A solar panel in space: it seems like something new, but it’s not that new
The concept of capturing solar energy in space through solar panels that are constantly exposed to the Sol It has been ‘boiling’ since the 1980s, although ideas such as the Dyson sphere or the Kardashev scale appeared long before that, about civilizations that got all their energy from their star, without limitations of days or hours. Moreover, the energy density in space is much higher: about ten times the energy density on Earth.
Solar power plants in space will be able to collect all that energy from orbit and transmit it to ground stations using microwaves. The scale of the project requires the development and deployment of super-heavy rockets, meaning the space technology capabilities of China They will need to make significant progress in the coming years.
China will throw one 1 kilometer solar panel into space and will achieve something impossible, but something the world has been looking forward to for a long time. An impressive project that no other can match. Not even covering this mountain with solar panels: that has created a very strange and unexpected effect in the area.