The Race to Harvest Solar Power in Space

There is a new space race. It’s a race to harvest solar energy in space, a project that could eliminate fossil fuels, could reduce energy-related greenhouse gases to zero, and, in the words of United Launch Alliance, one the biggest launchers of space payloads in North America, could lift every poor person on the planet out of poverty. For the last eight years, the Space Military Industrial Complex has opposed.. Read More

D3 Competition for New Technologies to Upgrade Humanity

The Defense Department is sponsoring a “shark tank” style competition for new technologies capable of dramatically upgrading humanity and increasing peace, a hunt for the best technology ideas that could simultaneously advance diplomacy, development and defense, called the D3 competition. The D3 contest has included 500 teams from the State Department, the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense. One team advocates that we end our dependence on greenhouse-gas-producing fuels and lift millions out.. Read More

Space: the new frontier in clean energy

A decade ago, Col. M. V. “Coyote” Smith, while working for the Pentagon’s National Security Space Office, was given a mission to save the world – without any money and a six-month deadline. He jumped at the challenge. His space-based solar power proposal is in the running to win perhaps as much as $10 billion to develop and deploy such systems. Smith’s DOD proposal, entitled “Carbon-Free Energy for Global Resilience and International Goodwill,” is.. Read More

Deadline Extended for the SunSat Design Competition

The Ohio Team managing the 2016 SunSat Competition has decided to extend the deadline for participant registration. The new date for “Intention to Compete” submission is now January 25, 2016. If you are aware of students/faculty/scientists/engineers/professionals who are doing forward-thinking research and development in some area(s) of Wireless Power Transmission, please share with them our International SunSat Design Competition website. As you may know, $10,000 prizes were awarded to finalists announced at the.. Read More

NASA officials admit Space Launch System is a rocket without a plan

As reported at The Verge and NASA Spaceflight, NASA officials admitted today the Space Launch System is a vehicle without a mission plan. The agency acknowledged what is essentially an empty flight manifest for the SLS at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida during an all-hands meeting on Monday. A test flight of the rocket, which will send people into orbit around the Moon, was originally planned for no later than August.. Read More

NASA adds commercial mini-shuttle to space station supply fleet

Irene Klotz of Reuters reports that NASA has hired Sierra Nevada Corp to its list of companies to fly cargo to the International Space Station. Sierra Nevada will Join SpaceX and Orbital ATK. The Dream Chaser is designed to land horizontally on a runway, similar to the Space Shuttle. Full story here.