- 6 weeks ago
Electricity from space isn’t sci-fi anymore, it’s actually happening right now. Scientists want to collect solar power in orbit where the Sun never sets. Some plans even involve beaming energy down from the Moon to Earth. In this video, we break down how it works, why it’s possible, and what could go wrong. Don’t miss this video if you want to see where our future energy might really come from. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00Wouldn't it be really cool if we could collect energy from space and bring it down to our planet?
00:06That means we wouldn't need to get electricity from wind, water, or other resources available on Earth.
00:13Millions of people would charge their phones, store food in the fridge, watch TV, and do so much more thanks to electricity we'd get wirelessly from space.
00:23It kinda sounds too good to be true at first, but this idea isn't science fiction anymore.
00:32Not only is it possible, but we might see it sooner than we think.
00:36Maybe even by 2040.
00:39SEI is short for Space Energy Initiative.
00:42They're currently working on an exciting project called Cassiopeia, and its main goal is to place a constellation of big satellites in a high orbit of our planet.
00:53Once the satellites are in their spots, we're likely to get access to big supplies of solar energy.
00:59Almost unlimited, some would say.
01:02We can get 40 times more energy from solar panels in space than from those located on Earth.
01:09Space is enormous.
01:11There's enough room for all those solar power satellites in our orbit, and each of them will be able to generate as much electricity as we get from a power station.
01:20If this worked out, we would be able to convert this energy to microwave energy.
01:27This type is similar to high-frequency radio waves you can find in a regular microwave oven.
01:33Then, we'd transmit it down to our planet and use it in everyday life.
01:39We'd need many, many antennas all over Earth to do this, of course.
01:43They would pick up the beams so that energy could be transformed into electricity in the end.
01:50Scientists are going to get millions of dollars to try out these space-based solar power projects, SBSP.
01:58These satellites will consist of hundreds of thousands of tiny identical pieces produced in our factories.
02:05The cool part is, is that we will have robots that will put them together.
02:10Scientists will program them to work on their own without any help.
02:14These robots will also service and maintain satellites when necessary.
02:21Of course, using solar energy isn't a new thing.
02:25It's an important resource for humankind right now as well.
02:28But it's not the same level as having solar panels in space.
02:32It's different because our atmosphere diffuses sunlight.
02:36In space, we will get this energy directly from the sun.
02:40Nothing will interfere with the process.
02:44Microwaves can easily go through clouds in our atmosphere.
02:48Also, sunlight in space is available at all times.
02:52So you can get energy not only during the day.
02:55Plus, the light is more intense up there than it is after it goes through all the layers of our atmosphere.
03:02Scientists from the UK are currently working on this project.
03:06But teams from all over the world want to develop and set up these space-based solar panels everywhere
03:11so people across the globe can benefit from them.
03:16They're working on this project in the US too.
03:19Scientists have already tried out a new thing called a sandwich tile.
03:24They used it to transform solar energy into radio waves.
03:27Microwave beams do sound like something dangerous when you first think about it.
03:32But scientists have tested them and found out that they are efficient and also very safe for wildlife on our planet and us.
03:41They tested this principle on a small scale first.
03:44They beamed microwaves from one point to another.
03:47And the distance between these points was 110 feet.
03:51A microwave beam is like a Wi-Fi we have all over the planet.
03:56It's not very intense.
03:58Approximately a quarter of this intensity of the midday sun.
04:02This idea is not new.
04:05Scientists have been considering it for over 50 years.
04:08But it was too expensive and too complicated to implement
04:11because we didn't have technologies good enough to do that.
04:15But now it seems possible.
04:19The study where they'll test it will take three years.
04:22And the goal is to see if these large solar farms we want to build in space can really work.
04:28Another question is if we will be able to get them at a reasonable price too.
04:35The sun is an awesome source of clean energy.
04:38And we might get even more energy than we can consume now or will consume in the future.
04:45To get solar energy from space, we need solar panels.
04:50Inflatable mirrors or reflectors will collect sunlight and direct it onto those panels.
04:56Then they will beam solar energy onto Earth.
05:00If this works out, solar energy will top all the other sources of energy combined.
05:06So, why don't we have solar panels in space already?
05:10It's expensive, okay.
05:11But there's also a high risk of space debris or radiation damaging these solar panels.
05:18Another risk is that we're likely to lose too much energy while transporting it back to Earth.
05:26So many new exciting space discoveries have been made over the past few years.
05:31For example, a super-Earth we discovered in 2017.
05:34It's an exoplanet, which means it orbits a star that's not in our solar system.
05:42And a super-Earth is a term we use to describe a planet more massive than Earth,
05:47but also lighter than ice giants, such as Uranus and Neptune.
05:53A super-Earth can be made of rock, gas, or a mix of both.
05:57It can be up to 10 times Earth's mass and twice its size.
06:03This cool super-Earth we found several years ago is 21 light-years away from us.
06:08It makes a full circle around its parent star, which is an M-dwarf star, in just two weeks.
06:15So that's how long a year lasts there.
06:18I don't even want to think about how old I'd be there.
06:21Wouldn't mind more presents, though.
06:22There are some planets out there that could harbor life, too.
06:29One of them, also discovered in 2017, could be the closest one to us where there's a possibility of life.
06:36This year, scientists found another super-Earth.
06:40It's 40% bigger than our home planet and closer to its star than we are.
06:45But its sun is over six times smaller than ours, and its temperature is twice as low.
06:53We don't even have to travel far to find new things.
06:57There's so much we don't know about our own solar system.
07:01We've discovered a new moon orbiting the biggest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.
07:09Jupiter is gigantic, which means its gravity is very strong and attracts many space objects.
07:16Take a look at our home planet.
07:18It has one moon.
07:20Mars has two.
07:22And there are at least 79 moons orbiting Jupiter.
07:27I mean, there are probably hundreds of moons we have yet to discover.
07:31The new one circles around Jupiter in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation.
07:36And it's positioned at an extreme tilt relative to Jupiter's orbital plane.
07:41And we have some work to do in our own neighborhood, too.
07:47NASA will go back to Venus by 2030.
07:51The last time scientists launched a mission there was in 1989.
07:55The reason why no one continued exploring Venus is probably that people are talking about going to Mars most of the time.
08:05Researchers have discovered something called phosphine in Venus's atmosphere.
08:10This element is special because on Earth, only the activity of humans and microbes produces it.
08:17So there could be some forms of life on Venus.
08:20There could have been a world with rivers and oceans on this planet a long time ago, before its surface became hot enough to literally melt lead.
08:30You can't talk about discovering new things in space and not mention at least one black hole.
08:37This newly found one, called the unicorn, is only 1,500 light years away from us, in the constellation of Monteseros.
08:47That makes it the closest to Earth black hole that we know about.
08:52And scientists found it when they noticed the light of its companion star become brighter.
08:57They understood that something was tugging on that star, even though they couldn't see the black hole directly.
09:07This catapult-like system on the moon might bring us limitless energy.
09:19It's a launch system concept that was recently proposed by the Chinese scientists.
09:24It would work like a hammer throw, spinning a launch arm that flings objects.
09:29This arm is supposed to be about 165 feet long.
09:32It will accelerate until it reaches the moon's escape velocity, and then whoosh!
09:36The capsule is sent into space.
09:39This crazy idea will cost around 18 billion dollars.
09:43Ooh, pricey.
09:44But trust me, it's totally going to be worth it.
09:47The system would be powered by solar panels and nuclear energy.
09:50It could also recover more than 70% of the energy used after each launch.
09:55The moon has a very weak gravity.
09:58There's also barely any atmosphere.
10:00So the air doesn't weigh you down.
10:02This makes it so much easier to launch stuff there.
10:04But why do we even need this?
10:07The main purpose is to transport helium-3.
10:11It's a really cool isotope of helium, and one of the most insane things about it is that
10:16it could become fuel for nuclear fission.
10:18This is the same process that happens in stars, including our sun.
10:22If we manage to recreate nuclear fusion here, on Earth, we can make it a clean and basically
10:32limitless source of energy for power plants.
10:35But helium-3 is super rare on Earth.
10:39We can sometimes find it in volcanic rock formations on the ocean floor.
10:42That's because it's a product of another rare element called tritium, the element we usually
10:48make in nuclear reactors and put in cool stuff like glow-in-the-dark paint.
10:53But the catch of tritium is that it takes forever to decay and turn into helium-3.
10:59Now, there's a bunch of helium-3 on the moon, around 1 million tons.
11:03Just 20 tons of helium-3 could meet China's yearly electricity needs.
11:08In fact, lunar soil has enough helium-3 to power the entire world for over a thousand
11:13years.
11:14But why is there so much of helium-3 on the moon, and barely none on our planet?
11:19Well, that's because helium-3 comes from the sun and travels in solar winds.
11:24Solar winds are like streams of dangerous particles.
11:27They're super radioactive.
11:28Our planet's thick atmosphere and magnetic fields serve as a shield for us.
11:33They almost fully protect us from those particles.
11:35But, unfortunately, they also prevent the good stuff like helium-3 from getting here.
11:41The moon's atmospheric shields are super thin, though, so it's under a constant shower
11:46of solar winds.
11:47So, helium-3 accumulated there over billions of years, and now it's just scattered around
11:52there.
11:54But mining it and bringing it back to Earth is no easy feat.
11:57It's super expensive.
11:59Just think about it.
12:00Rockets need tons of fuel to break free from gravity.
12:07Every single bolt and screw on the spacecraft must be engineered to survive extreme conditions,
12:12like radiation.
12:13Not to mention, you need a team of rocket scientists, literally working around the clock to make sure
12:19nothing goes wrong.
12:20You can't call a repair guy if something breaks on the moon.
12:23So, generally, it costs about a half a million dollars to send one pound of payload to our
12:28satellite.
12:29That's based on estimates from NASA.
12:31To get some idea, let's calculate how much it would cost to send an apple to the moon.
12:36A typical apple weighs about 0.4 pounds.
12:40So, that funny mission would be at least $200,000.
12:43Now, for comparison, the Chinese launch system weighs around 80 tons.
12:48Another problem is that the lunar surface is pretty harsh on the equipment, like the
12:55freakish lunar dust, for example.
12:57You might recall this small thing that happened in the 60s called the moon landings.
13:02But when the Apollo astronauts came back from the moon, they found something weird was happening
13:07to them.
13:07Their throats were sore and their eyes wandered.
13:10Luckily, it wasn't some scary moon sickness.
13:13Turns out, there's a lot of lunar dust clinging to their spacesuits.
13:17This dust seems harmless, but it's made up of sharp and abrasive particles, much smaller
13:22than a human hair, yet sharp like glass.
13:25It contains silicate, a thing that can cause severe lung problems on Earth and is a common
13:30issue for miners.
13:31So, it caused a lunar hay fever.
13:34At least, that's how NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt called it.
13:39All 12 astronauts who walked on the moon were then sneezing and experiencing nasal congestion.
13:45Sometimes, it took days to fade away.
13:48The dust even got inside their spacecraft, smelling like burnt gunpowder.
13:52This nasty stuff can be harmful to both humans and equipment.
13:56It managed to damage spacesuit boots and even ruin the seals on the containers used to bring
14:01back samples during the Apollo missions.
14:03As we mentioned, they're glass-sharp and jagged.
14:06So, they start scratching, grinding, and wearing down any surfaces they come in contact with.
14:12They don't care if it's metal, glass, or humans.
14:15And since there's so much dust, this causes equipment to malfunction and fail quite quickly.
14:20And that's just one of the possible hurdles with lunar missions.
14:24So, scientists really need to come up with some weird ideas to get that precious helium-3.
14:29The Chinese scientist project looks like a weird sci-fi invention.
14:36But it's a cost-effective way to transport materials back to us.
14:40It could throw stuff to Earth twice a day, and it would be 90% cheaper than current methods.
14:45Since it only needs electricity and no fuel, the system would be small and easy to set up.
14:51Besides the beloved helium-3, this catapult would also help advance technologies in space mining
14:57and heavy launch vehicles.
14:59No lunar dust scares this thing.
15:01It should last for at least 20 years.
15:03It would need to be transported to the Moon using China's super-heavy lift rocket.
15:11But the idea is far from new.
15:14There was a novel called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein.
15:18In the story, there's a lunar colony that uses an electromagnetic catapult
15:23to send weed and water ice back to Earth.
15:25It gets quite wild when the colonists, known as loonies, eventually take control of this catapult.
15:31They threaten to launch rocks at Earth unless their colony is recognized as an independent world.
15:37Sounds kind of funny, but a large rock, if thrown at us from the Moon, could wipe out a city.
15:42The damage would be like from a meteorite strike, with fires, houses destroyed, and worse.
15:48But scientists have been talking about this catapult idea for a while.
15:52For decades, they were trying to find a way to use electromagnetic systems to send resources from the Moon to Earth.
15:58There are also some challenges.
16:02For example, scientists forgot to mention how exactly helium-3 would be extracted from the lunar soil.
16:09Installing this launch system on the Moon's rugged surface would be difficult as well.
16:14Also, they would need to make sure that the system remains stable at high speeds,
16:18and that it could withstand the Moon's extreme temperature changes, cosmic rays, and intense solar radiation.
16:24So, it would take some time to develop.
16:27China hopes to have the key components of the system ready by 2030.
16:31The full-scale operations might start by 2045.
16:37China has tons of plans for the Moon.
16:39For example, they want to build a research station at its south pole by 2035.
16:44But China's not the only one in this space race.
16:47Considering that NASA plans to send humans on Mars by that time, oh boy, the 2030s will be a crazy decade for space exploration.
16:56There's also an American startup that's part of the lunar economy.
17:01The ones that plan to land astronauts on the Moon have people actually living on our satellite in a decade or two.
17:07One of the goals of this colony is to boost economic growth and create new jobs.
17:12Most of them will likely involve some mining activities.
17:15And if there'd be two space colonies, well, they'll have to figure something out.
17:23That's it for today.
17:24So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
17:29Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!
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