Dateline: September 1 2031
SpaceX has done it again. Not content with building the world’s greatest space-based internet service, Starlink, and also making the world’s only superheavy lift rocket, Starship, they are now offering solar energy from space — Starpower.
Using Starship’s cavernous cargo bay and robotic space assembly, SpaceX has placed dozens of gigantic mirrors in medium Earth orbit. Rather than trying to harvest solar power in space with panels, and then transmit the power electromagnetically to the ground, Starpower simply focuses the intense sunlight available in space, and reflects it to earthly solar plants – at night!
The idea is as genius as it is audacious. But quite compelling. The best solar locations in the world have fewer than 10 cloudy days in a year, but they never generate power at night. Starpower turns an asset that’s idle 65% of the time into a top performer. The return on investment is incredible, despite the hefty fees Starpower charges to “timeshare” the Sun.
In fact, demand is so great, from California to Namibia to Mongolia, that you have to bid for the most popular hours to have your solar farm irradiated at night. Starpower’s online auction site makes it easy to keep track of your bids and successful trades, just like a stock market app.
“It’s the only fair way to sell the sun,” says Elon Musk, “and the rates fluctuate according to the weather, season and your specific location. If you’re the only one with clear skies on your longitude, you get a bargain!”
At this stage it’s only feasible for utility-scale solar installations to benefit from Starpower, as the minimum beam is 4km across, and there’s no compensation for “spillage” onto your neighbour’s property, so remote locations are best. And of course there are critics. Environmentalists say “it messes with nature,” while astronomers lament more clutter in the night sky.
But no-one’s complaining about having clean solar power – even at night.
- First published on Mindbullets, September 5 2024
Making it in space
Space isn’t just for astronauts and tourists
Dateline: November 12 2033
We’ve got used to astronauts from all sorts of countries heading into orbit and visiting one of the several space stations there. And we’re also hardly excited when yet another multi-millionaire and their friends launch on a sub-orbital flip, or ride SpaceX around the planet. But there’s another industry that’s booming in space.
It’s Zero-G Manufacturing – making stuff in space, or in orbit at least.
That’s not as crazy as it sounds. You’re probably thinking: Why send materials into orbit at great expense and then bring them back, when you could do the same thing right here on Earth? But launch costs are getting cheaper and cheaper, and there are unique advantages to making things in microgravity.
Specialised products such as bioprinted organs, ultra-pure fibre optics and defect-free large crystals can only be made or grown in an environment where there’s no gravity to disturb the process. Nanodiamonds and 2D materials like graphene can be more precisely controlled in zero-g conditions.
High-performance superconductors and quantum computer chips are also easier to produce at scale, while alloys made from different density materials in solution won’t settle out during production. And if you need a hard vacuum, space has it in abundance.
Needless to say, these are all high-value, specialised components and products, which justifies the expense of launching the materials and machinery into orbit. But as space factories become more numerous and accessible, we can expect demand to increase, and new discoveries are likely, that could truly change the world.
And of course, the next lunar lander or Mars mothership could be constructed in space itself. Using 3D printing techniques and robotic assembly, spaceships far bigger than anything that can be launched from the surface will just be made in space.
- First published on Mindbullets, November 11 2021
Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. The Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, and challenge and stimulate strategic thinking.
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