Spacefaring Institute

Mike Snead's narrated video presentation on space solar power-generated astroelectricity made to an ESA-hosted workshop....

127 – Mike Snead’s space solar power presentation to ESA Mike Snead’s narrated video presentation on space solar power-generated astroelectricity made to an ESA-hosted workshop.

Mike Snead, Professional Engineer and president and founder of the Spacefaring Institute LLC, was invited by the European Space Agency to present at their 14 July 2023 workshop on space solar power. Mr. Snead prepared this highly visual, narrated video presentation for this workshop. In it, he quantitively explains why wind power and ground solar power are NOT practicable solutions for the world to "go clean" with renewable energy. He then explains how space solar power-generated astroelectricity can enable the abundant clean energy the world will need to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Mr. Snead concluded the presentation with a proposal to commercialize the cargo version of the Space Launch System to use it to build the initial low Earth orbit (LEO) astrologistics capabilities needed to "jump start" the upcoming "Spacefaring Age". Mr. Snead included visual examples of how the SLS could be used to build the initial LEO spacebases, spacedocks, and rotating space habitats, as well as the initial spaceships, to initiate astrologistics operations within the Earth-Moon system.

Sustainably powering the world with space solar power (narrated) Many people incorrectly believe that wind and ground solar power will enable the world to “go clean” while providing abundant, middle-class affordable energy...

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this week has become a display of the intransigent incompetence of many self-proclaimed “world leaders” to lead the world’s orderly transition this century to abundant, practicable green energy. Instead, on the topics of sustainability and green energy, they have become increasingly shrill in their almost screaming rhetoric that the “sky is falling”, and everyone must unquestionably accept their claim for the need for a global “reset” to save humanity. In short, they are calling for a return to a global dark age with, of course, themselves as the appointed kings and merchant nobility to lead this new world order.

The fact that over a thousand jet-fuel burning private jets were used to reach the airport closest to Davos displays the hypocrisy of the WEF today. Why not move the meeting to a European location located near traditional rail, road, and airport access to eliminate the meeting’s attendees need to fly privately? Isn’t first class good enough? Obviously, Davos is selected for exclusivity—meaning exclusion of the interested public—and the ability to display personal wealth through a Rolex® with wings.

Former US Vice President Al Gore was a prominent speaker on the topic of environmental protection. The following video is his remarks at the WEF meeting this week. Note how he starts off calmly, but soon transitions into a trademark rant that is all too familiar in his public remarks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-br-n9xTOc

The need for many of those speaking about environmental protection to express hypocritical alarm indicates other than sincerely held personal beliefs matched by personal actions. The failure of the world’s and, especially, the American public’s willingness to fall into step with their eagerness to march into a new dark age—one they named the “Great Reset”—brings forth increasingly hyperbolic alarmist rhetoric, as Mr. Gore demonstrated in his remarks.

I have researched and written about the topic central to environmental protection—that of America’s and the world’s energy security. Transitioning the world to a sustainable, prosperous industrial culture powered by abundant and affordable green energy is central to the world achieving—as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for in his 1941 State of the Union address—“freedom from want”. What the WEF has failed to achieve, since its founding over 50 years ago, is to define a PRACTICABLE path to achieve freedom from want. The same is true for the United Nations, the US Congress, or any other world “leadership” body. This implies that the world’s highly educated “elite” simply don’t really know what to do. The world’s political paradigm with them at the helm is plainly failing.

As I explain in my recent articles and videos, the path forward for America and the world is to undertake the development of space solar power-generated astroelectricity. Astroelectricity, developed as a global “public good”, is needed to practicably achieve freedom from want this century. Watch this 9-minute YouTube video I made for an introduction to why astroelectricity is the path to pursue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E-0NYnAaUA

Mike Snead, P.E.
President

The Coming Age of Astroelectricity Space solar power-generated astroelectricity will provide the world with globally-available sustainable energy. This video introduces astroelectricity and ex...

In the early years of America's involvement in World War II, strategic land and naval airpower were the two primary means of US military force projection. US Army Air Forces B-17 strategic bombers struck the first offensive blows in both the European and Pacific theaters of operation. During that war, the US Army Air Forces became a force of several million military and civilian personnel, supported by the world's then largest industry, enabling the US to have global airpower capabilities. The success and importance of strategic airpower was the primary reason the US Air Force was created as a separate service in 1947. Ever since, strategic airpower has been at the heart of America's national security and ability to project power globally to deter aggression, to support allies and friends, and to strike against enemies.

Last month, USAF unveiled its latest strategic bomber—the B-21. Like the B-2, the B-21 will enable global air power reach against heavily defended adversaries to provide a primary means of deterring aggression—such as the now clearly growing aggression by Communist China.

The nation's need for strategic airpower was initially widely opposed when strongly advocated by Col. Billy Mitchell in the early 1920s. Generals and admirals scoffed at the notion of airpower becoming a substantial means of warfare. Fortunately, airpower champions within the Army Air Corps maintained focus and began to develop the strategic bomber—the B-17—that became the initial cornerstone of US military offensive capabilities in WW II.

During WW II, Germany's use of the V-2 tactical ballistic missile made Earth orbital space a warzone. Thousands of V-2's were launched in the final six months of the war in Europe. This was a wakeup call for the US that space was now a matter of national security. When USAF separated, its vision for the future was that airpower would expand to become aerospacepower—that manned air operations would expand upwards into space to support national defense and critical national interests.

Despite political opposition within the Air Force and the other services, the Air Force maintained this view for decades. The illustration below is of a space fighter—the S-17—from a 1976 cover illustration of the Air Force's official magazine, Airman. In this public affairs-approved illustration, the manned S-17 is operated by the US Aerospace Force—not to be confused with the "Space Force".

It is now time for the US Air Force to formally transition into the US Aerospace Force to ensure that America's strategic defense needs and strategic interests in outer space are met with technological and operational superiority over potential adversaries, such as Communist China. Neither the Space Force nor NASA are capable of delivering this now vital national security need. The same service that has now developed the B-21 to maintain American operational strategic airpower superiority needs to provide America's strategic spacepower superiority.

Mike Snead, PE
President

This news story provides an update on the R&D efforts underway at Caltech related to space solar power (SSP). Caltech is preparing to launch a small satellite to perform in-space tests of the SSP technologies and components under development for the last decade. These efforts appear to be similar to those underway through the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory.

Like several other approaches to SSP, Caltech appears to have adopted an approach based on conventional satellite deployment methodology combined with the SpaceX approach to constellations of small satellites produced on terrestrial manufacturing lines and launched in large groups. In my opinion, this is fundamentally a flawed approach for yielding a practicable SSP solution.

Placing such large constellations of small satellites in LEO is, by itself, troubling from a human spacefaring perspective. Every effort needs to be now undertaken to minimize the possibility of space debris. Using this approach in GEO is, in my opinion, dangerous in that cosmic events, disruptions in control, hacking, embedded component failures, or direct attack, can be expected to create a cascade of debris production that would remove GEO as a productive orbital position.

Practicable SSP will require a substantial human astrologistics capability extending to GEO and beyond such that the SSP systems in GEO can maintained under active positive control, be repaired as needed, and be retired safely at end-of-life. This is not possible with a constellation approach.

The world will need upwards of 10,000 5-GW scale SSP platforms in GEO. Attempting to do this with constellations of thousands of small autonomous satellites for each "platform" is not a reasonable plan.

Mike Snead, PE
President

Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into Orbit in January The launch represents the first in-situ test of the technology to harvest solar energy in space and transmit it to Earth.

Since 2007, the Spacefaring Institute LLC has been working quietly to advance America's true human spacefaring capabilities. In 2023, the Spacefaring Institute will increase its outreach to the American public to explain the exciting spacefaring future ahead for America as America undertakes a true spacefaring industrial revolution to develop space solar power-generated astroelectricity. This brief 1-minute video highlights this exciting future ahead. This video is but one of many available on the Spacefaring Institute's YouTube channel.

Spacefaring Institute — Charting America's Path Spaceward! This brief video highlights the Spacefaring Institute's vision of the exciting future ahead for Americans as America leads a spacefaring industrial revolutio...

America needs a sound and practicable national energy security strategy to ensure that America is energy secure at all times.

A key part of this strategy is to ensure that America’s vital energy needs can be fully met during times of extreme weather, especially weather events that are not damaging such as hurricanes.

Cold weather places severe demands on both electrical power generation as well as the fossil carbon fuels now providing most of the energy needed to keep warm and travel. Hence, energy supply planners should be able to plan for and ensure that fossil carbon fuel needs are, with appropriate reserves, able to fully meet these energy needs.

The need for comprehensive national weather monitoring and forecasting first emerged as early as 1844 when the telegraph was first being introduced. The telegraph enabled weather information to be passed along from city to city, for the first time providing timely warning of severe weather events.

Congress established the US Weather Bureau—now the National Weather Service—in 1870. Hence, for the 152 years since 1870, the US Government has had detailed historical weather information from which energy supply providers can project future energy needs.

Artic cold weather blasts coming deep into America are not new. Undoubtedly, they have been happening throughout the past 20,000 years since the last glaciers covering most of Canada and the northern states melted.

In 1899, the “Great Artic Outbreak” brought heavy snow to the eastern coastal states with temperatures as low as -9°F were seen in Atlanta, Georgia, indicating that freezing temperatures were seen deep into the South. In 1977, much of the northern states experienced blizzard conditions for a week or more that brought normal operations to a standstill. This happened again over Valentine’s Day in Texas and the Midwest in 2021.

Knowing all of this history, why then are we now seeing calls for energy conservation as another artic cold blast hit America, bringing freezing temperatures deep into the South? It has been 45 years since the “modern” 1977 cold snap. Apparently, little has been learned about proper energy security planning.

It is the responsibility of the US Department of Energy to ensure that America is energy secure. Clearly, they are not meeting this primary mission obligation. Why is that? Are they too busy playing with nuclear fusion? Too busy trying to “go green” without a practicable green energy transition plan that would ensure that America remains energy secure throughout the transition?

America needs a sound national energy security strategy to ensure abundant, middle-class affordable energy supplies regardless of the weather conditions—especially as America undergoes its inevitable transition to green energy this century.

Mike Snead, P.E.
President and founder
Spacefaring Institute
Charting America's path spaceward!

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/us-utilities-impose-blackouts-issue-warnings-over-deep-freeze-power-grid-strain_4944618.html?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy&rs=SHRMDGBK

US Utilities Impose Blackouts, Issue Warnings Over Deep Freeze Power Grid Strain A number of U.S. utility companies called on customers to conserve electricity due to frigid weather on Saturday ...

The push by fervent environmentalists to try to rapidly go green undercuts developing the political national consensus needed to "go green" in an ORDERLY manner. A good example was the push to end the use of coal for generating electrical power in Europe. Coal plants are being brought back online to meet their energy security needs. Energy security trumps protecting the climate—a key fact that developing an American National Energy Security Strategy needs to make a planning priority. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/germany-returns-coal-energy-security-000100762.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Germany Revives Coal as Energy Security Trumps Climate Goals (Bloomberg) -- Germany is set to boost its reliance on coal as it battles an unprecedented energy crisis — even at the expense of its ambitious climate goals. Most Read from BloombergChina Is Likely Seeing 1 Million Covid Cases, 5,000 Deaths a DayDonald Trump’s Taxes Reveal Big Losses: What We L...

In his modeling of what is needed for America to undertake an ORDERLY transition to green energy, Mike Snead, PE, foresees that "green carbon fuels" will replace fossil carbon fuels.

Green carbon fuels are synthetic fuels created chemically in a "greened" refineries by electrolyzing hydrogen from water, using green electricity, and combining this with carbon dioxide (CO2) recovered from the air—also done using green electricity. When used, the combustion produces CO2 that goes into the atmosphere. However, to make more green carbon fuels—and plastics and other similar products—the same amount of CO2 is extracted from the atmosphere, essentially recycling the carbon in the CO2.

Porsche has demonstrated that such green carbon fuels run fine in automobiles. The company, Highly Innovative Fuels, is one of several developing the needed technologies. The key is to be able to provide the green electricity at the scale needed to enable fossil carbon fuels to be replaced. While some refer to the process of ending the use of fossil carbon fuels as "decarbonization", with the use of green carbon fuels, this is an incorrect descriptor. A sustainable culture can ethically use green carbon fuels, greened plastics, et cetera. This is the future we need to build for our children's future.

With a well-organized, orderly transition to green energy, the end user should see little or no change in how they use energy. The current political push to go "all electric" is both unneeded and unwise.

Space solar power-generated astroelectricity will become the world's primary source of green electricity used to produce green carbon fuels while also providing the electricity used by the end users. (Download Snead's eBook, Astroelectricity, available for free PDF download at https://www.spacefaringinstitute.net/.)

Porsche is replacing gasoline with air and water Porsche has filled its first car with a new eFuel made from carbon dioxide and water that works like gasoline, but has net-zero carbon emissions.

"The Omen of the Star: A Story of the Magi" by Norman George Purves.

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and we are come to worship him.” – Matthew 2:1

The author, Mr. Purves, was an instructor of astronomy. With the aid of a computer program able to determine how the night skies looked in the past from a particular location on the Earth, he wrote this "Story of the Magi", explaining this Biblical event from the perspective of an astronomer.

“The Omen of the Star: A Story of the Magi” by Norman George Purves 2020 saw a Christmas star in the form of the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. Here is the story of the original Christmas star.

Mike Snead's evaluation of America's path to transitioning to practicable green energy....

126 – Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity Mike Snead’s evaluation of America’s path to transitioning to practicable green energy.

The current US path to “go green” is fundamentally flawed by its reliance on terrestrial sources of energy that are NOT practicable to scale up to the magnitude needed to replace fossil carbon fuels. The United States is wasting valuable time and financial resources pursuing these inadequate solutions.

Mike Snead, professional engineer (P.E.), president and founder of the Spacefaring Institute LLC, addressed this issue in a recent four-part article, “Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity”, published online at The Space Review. Here are links to each of the four parts:

Part 1 – https://thespacereview.com/article/4481/1

Part 2 – https://thespacereview.com/article/4485/1

Part 3 – https://thespacereview.com/article/4490/1

Part 4 – https://thespacereview.com/article/4494/1

America now needs a sound national energy security strategy to guide its ORDERLY transition to abundant green energy. This article focused on evaluating the four primary scalable options America has to “go green”. These are the baseload power options of nuclear fission power and space solar power and the intermittent power options of wind and ground solar power.

In Parts 2 and 3, nuclear fission, wind, and ground solar power were eliminated from consideration because they could not be practicably scaled up. From these results, Mike Snead concludes that proponents of these three terrestrial "solutions" have not considered, are ignoring, or are hiding the fact that nuclear fission, wind, and ground solar power alone or in combination are NOT practicable solutions at the scale needed to substantially replace fossil carbon fuels. In other words, they will not enable America to go green. To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, when we have eliminated all solutions that are not practicable, the scalable solution that remains must be the option to pursue.

Space solar power-generated astroelectricity is technologically now about where large-scale hydroelectric power was 120 years ago—the dream of engineers seeing America's major western rivers as a primary source of renewable electric power. While the basic tech of hydroelectricity had been used for about 20 years, building the massive dams needed to create the reservoirs and hydraulic head required to produce GW-scale power were beyond anything yet done. Yet, 30 years later, the first of the major dams in the West and the more modest dams in the South were being built. Thirty years from now, in 2050, we can be building the first of the space solar power systems that can enable America (and the world) to go green this century. Yet, this will not happen without concerted federal leadership, just as happened with large-scale hydroelectricity.

When the Paris Climate Agreement was being formulated, the Obama administration was aware of the potential of space solar power as the world's green energy revolution solution. Yet, they chose to ignore it. So has the Biden administration. Both preferred to focus on blaming and punishing Americans, via the Paris Agreement, rather than solving the challenge of transitioning America to abundant green energy in an orderly manner. The reason for the quantitative focus of this article was to show how Americans have been misled into pursuing a false path to a future prosperous America powered by abundant green energy.

The Space Review: Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 4) No culture can develop beyond the limits of its energy resources, and the cultures of primitive man would have been circumscribed by the boundary of human energy for ages without end had not some means been developed for augmenting energy resources for culture building by harnessing solar energy in....

The Space Review: Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 1) In 1959, American anthropologist Leslie White wrote “No culture can develop beyond the limits of its energy resources.” White based this observation on his studies of food energy production per person in ancient cultures. To grow and expand, the available food energy produced per unit of human e...

Mike Snead, P.E., president and founder of the Spacefaring Institute LLC, has published the first part of a four-part article, "Evaluating America's green energy options including astroelectricity".

While America's need this century to "go green" is quite clear—arising from the simple fact that fossil carbon fuels are non-sustainable and will be increasingly costly—America has yet to establish a practicable path on how to undertake this transition. In this article, Mike Snead begins to quantitatively evaluate America's four primary paths to green energy: nuclear fission power, wind power, ground solar power, and space solar power-generated astroelectricity.

In this first part, Snead explains why America's continued substantial reliance of domestic fossil carbon fuel production is needed during its green transition to maintain America's economic prosperity and national security. He then explains how America can transition to green energy in a manner that will be largely transparent to most people. Properly planned and engineered, there will be no need for some "great reset" to a lesser standard of living accompanied by a loss of middle-class prosperity.

The Space Review: Evaluating America’s green energy options including astroelectricity (part 1) In 1959, American anthropologist Leslie White wrote “No culture can develop beyond the limits of its energy resources.” White based this observation on his studies of food energy production per person in ancient cultures. To grow and expand, the available food energy produced per unit of human e...

Download The High frontier: A New Strategy—the important book published in 1982 by Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham (USA, retired) that helped to start the Strategic Defense Initiative under President Reagan....

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=3146

125 – Downloadable PDF – The High Frontier: A New National Strategy, by Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham, 1982 Download The High frontier: A New Strategy—the important book published in 1982 by Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham (USA, retired) that helped to start the Strategic Defense Initiative under President Rea…

Established as an inalienable human right by President Franklin Roosevelt, "freedom from want" requires abundant supplies of industrial energy. Through the development of space solar power-generated astroelectricity, America can fulfill its moral obligation to enable the global achievement of "freedom from want" with abundant green energy....

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=3093

124 – America’s moral obligation to develop astroelectricity Established as an inalienable human right by President Franklin Roosevelt, “freedom from want” requires abundant supplies of industrial energy. Through the development of space solar po…

The eBook, "Astroelectricity", discussing America's exciting future in developing space solar power-generated astroelectricity, is now available for a free download from ResearchGate....

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=3062

123 – Ebook Astroelectricity now available for free download The eBook, “Astroelectricity”, discussing America’s exciting future in developing space solar power-generated astroelectricity, is now available for a free download from ResearchG…

Is the United States prepared for non-nuclear space warfare? Pearl Harbor II is a fictional future space war scenario written in 1995 that is still relevant today....

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=3054

122 – Pearl Harbor II: A fictional scenario of a non-nuclear space attack on the United States Is the United States prepared for non-nuclear space warfare? Pearl Harbor II is a fictional future space war scenario written in 1995 that is still relevant today.

If a government pledges and, especially, if it imposes laws mandating decarbonization, then it is reasonable to expect that the practical means to achieve decarbonization has been quantitatively defined. In short, a well-developed decarbonization plan must exist somewhere, right? What if such a plan doesn't exist?...

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=2786

121 – An assessment of EU decarbonization options including astroelectricity If a government pledges and, especially, if it imposes laws mandating decarbonization, then it is reasonable to expect that the practical means to achieve decarbonization has been quantitatively de…

120 – The Coming Age of Astroelectricity. This is a new 10-minute video and accompanying conference paper explaining why space solar power-generated astroelectricity will necessarily become the primary green energy source.

https://www.spacefaringamerica.com/?p=2759

120 – The Coming Age of Astroelectricity Space solar power-generated astroelectricity is growing in recognition as the world’s future primary green energy source. This video and paper explain why this is happening.