Forty-seven years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent about two-and-a-half hours on the surface of another world. This video begins with Neil stepping off the Lunar Module for the first time, and goes on to show the entire historic EVA.
Will an American spacecraft ever carry another American beyond the surly bonds of Earth?
The Space Review online publication has published an excellent article by Mike Snead, president of the Spacefaring Institute, supporting the USA taking the lead in space-based energy. The article also encourages citizens to sign both of our petitions to send this important message to the US Congress.
Human civilization has been very fortunate to have access to readily available fossil fuels to enable the industrial revolution and the rise of our modern society. However, as most now understand, environmental and energy security concerns have emerged from our substantial use of fossil fuels.
Our thanks to Mike Snead for his concise and compelling arguments in favor of space-based energy, and also thanks to Jeff Foust for publishing Mike’s article and helping us to get the word out to a much wider audience.
Click here to read Mike’s entire article on The Space Review online publication website.
Click here to read more of Mike’s writing on his Spacefaring America blog.
The Spacefaring Institute has released this compelling video in support of our petition, “USA Must Lead the Transition to Space-Based Energy.”
Please share this video and help get the word out, and please sign the petition at change.org.
Citizens for Space Based Solar Power has published the following petition, addressed to the President of the United States, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Please go to change.org and sign this petition to send a strong message to the President and to Congress: Take these actions now to transition our nation and the world from dependence on fossil fuels to a virtually unlimited source of clean, sustainable energy.
Your signature on this petition will have a very real and positive impact on the United States of America and on all future generations of humankind worldwide.
If you doubt this statement, please read on.
The United States of America faces a looming national energy security threat due to its dependence on a finite supply of fossil fuels.
Humankind worldwide faces an environmental security threat due to its dependence on fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burned.
The human desire to improve our standard of living is driving both the United States of America and humankind worldwide to consume more energy per person than ever before.
Worldwide population growth, coupled with increasing energy consumption per person, is increasing the total amount of energy required to sustain humankind worldwide.
There are no terrestrial energy sources, renewable or non-renewable, that can be sustainably scaled to meet the planet’s increasing energy requirements.
Sustainable, carbon emission free energy from space-based solar power (SBSP) is the solution. Simply put–and challenging to accomplish–SBSP consists of orbiting solar power satellites continuously harvesting the sun’s intense energy in space. The energy is beamed wirelessly to rectifying antennas on the Earth, and then transmitted to existing electrical power grids. Unlike terrestrial renewable energy sources, space-based solar power is nearly infinitely scalable. It is also continuous, so it can supply the planet’s baseload energy requirements.
Space-based solar power is not a new idea. Peter Glaser, an American scientist, obtained U.S. Patent Number US003781647 for SBSP in 1973. Since then, the idea has been studied extensively by NASA, other government agencies, academic groups, private organizations, and individuals. Every technology required for the implementation of SBSP exists, and they are each well understood.
Transitioning the United States of America, and eventually, humankind worldwide, to sustainable, carbon emission free space-based energy will require a substantial, coordinated effort, sustained economic investment, and political will. Likely to span the rest of the twenty-first century, commitment to this effort must supersede the short-term nature of two- and four-year election cycles.
Sign this petition and send the following urgent message to the United States Congress, to the President of the United States, and to future congresses and administrations:
Pass and support legislation to ensure national energy security and to protect the worldwide environment by establishing congressionally chartered public-private corporations for space-based energy, space mining, and spacefaring logistics. These corporations shall provide the United States, its allies, and trading partners with sustainable and carbon emission free space-based energy.
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The United States of America has a proven track record of success with large and difficult challenges, like building a transcontinental railroad, building a national highway system, and creating an extremely successful communications satellite industry.
In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The following year, the U.S. Congress passed the Space Act and created NASA. In 1961, John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to claim a leadership role in space and land a man on the moon within the decade. In July of 1969, the Apollo 11 spaceflight landed Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. The Apollo Program went on to send ten more astronauts to walk on the Moon.
Today Japan, China, and India all have active space-based energy development programs.
The main challenges to implementing a successful space-based energy industry can be categorized in three areas.
Technical Challenges
Economic Challenges
Political Challenges
This is only a small portion of the available space-based energy resources, presented in no particular order. Additional Google and YouTube searches are highly recommended.
D3 Space Solar Proposal – 2016 multi-agency proposal for the U.S. to begin a space-based solar power program
Spacefaring Institute – Dedicated to transforming America into a true, commercial spacefaring nation
Space Solar Power Institute – A non-profit corporation organized to educate the public about space solar power
Space Solar Power Workshop at Georgia Tech – A volunteer workshop researching the details of space solar power
National Space Society – Space Solar Power Resources – A curated library of space solar power related books, articles, studies, websites, videos, and other resources
The Case for Space Solar Power – 2014 book by John C. Mankins that recounts the history of space-based solar power and lays out a path forward for its implementation
Citizens for Space Based Solar Power – A space-based solar power advocacy blog, with the goal of educating fellow citizens and influencing public opinion in favor of this game-changing technology
Sign this petition and send the following urgent message to the United States Congress, to the President of the United States, and to future congresses and administrations:
Pass and support legislation to ensure national energy security and to protect the worldwide environment by establishing congressionally chartered public-private corporations for space-based energy, space mining, and spacefaring logistics. These corporations shall provide the United States, its allies, and trading partners with sustainable and carbon emission free space-based energy.
It is an age-old reality that nations must be prepared to defend their assets. This reality is the same in space, where communications, weather, Global Position System, and eventually, solar power satellites provide critical services, and must be defended.
Winston Beauchamp, the Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space, and the director of the Principal Defense Department Space Advisor Staff said of the USAF’s commitment, “We have an obligation to provide, not just space resiliency capabilities for our defense space, but for this global commons.”
Thank you, Mr. Beauchamp, and your USAF colleagues, for having America’s back around the world, and in space.
Today, rather than mourn the final chapter of NASA’s Space Transportation System (STS) program, I choose to look to the future of America’s continuing, global leadership as a spacefaring nation. Whether it be the establishment of a permanent lunar outpost, manned missions to Mars, mining of near earth objects, the establishment of space-based solar power satellites, or all of the above and beyond, the next chapters in America’s exploration of space will definitely inspire many generations of our citizens, both young and old.
I was under the flight path of the Space Shuttle Endeavour OV-105 this morning, as it passed over Redwood City, California. The Endeavour, atop the specially outfitted 747, had flown over the Golden Gate Bridge and was on its way to a low flyover of Moffett Field, in Mountain View, to honor the employees and their families at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
The Endeavour was built to replace Challenger, and from 1992 to 2011, flew a total of twenty-five missions. The Endeavour’s final destination is the the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California.
I wept at the news of Neil Armstrong’s death today. I wept for the man and his family, I wept for what the man symbolized, and I wept for America. As the sad news sank in, I was transported back in time. I was once again in front of that old, black and white television set in my parents’ house in Ohio. It was almost 11:00 PM, the room was dark except for the light coming from the TV, and my dad was sitting beside me on the couch.
Several hours before, our nation watched and listened as the Lunar Module Eagle, separated from the Command Module Columbia. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin left Command Module Pilot Michael Collins in lunar orbit, as they began their historic descent to the surface of the Moon. Soon, a voice called out declining altitude and velocity numbers. The details of the lunar surface grew clearer out a triangular window, and the shadow of the LM came into view. From Mission Control in Houston, we finally heard, “We copy you down, Eagle.” And then came the famous response:
“Houston … uh … Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
On that warm summer evening of July 21, 1969, I was mesmerized by the grainy picture of a fellow Ohioan, a farm boy from the small town of Wapakoneta on the other side of the state, poised on the ladder of the LM. I held my breath while Neil Armstrong described how far the pads of the lander had sunk into the powdery surface, only about one to two inches, he reported. Then, he said, “I’m going to step off the LM now.” With his right hand still on the ladder, he spoke for himself, and for all of humankind.
“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The American space program of the late 1950s and 1960s, and men like Neil Armstrong, inspired an entire generation of young people to enter the fields of science, engineering, and mathematics. America was strong, and the undisputed leader in manned and unmanned space exploration. To an eleven-year-old kid from Ohio, it seemed that even the sky was no longer the limit, and that anything we, as a nation, could imagine, was possible.
Today, when I heard that Neil Armstrong, American, First Man on the Moon had died, I wept for the loss of a boyhood hero … and I wept for the loss of America’s once-great space program. With American astronauts now having to hitchhike to the International Space Station, it feels like our nation has lost its desire, determination, and passion to lead the rest of the world into space. Along with that loss of passion, I fear that our space program is rapidly losing the very skills and abilities to once again be the leader in humankind’s exploration of the final frontier.
Neil Armstrong’s family has made a request of us, as we mourn the loss of a most humble, great American:
“The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”
I know I will.
Citizens for Space Based Solar Power 