Next steps

We are looking forward to taking the next step in bringing the top visions to reality.

What emerging trends do you think will affect the way space activities are shaped today and tomorrow? how will they affect what we do? How soon?

The 50 years visions project has been selected to prepare a paper on recommendations that detail how the top visions will develop. We hope to carry out Part 2 of this project very soon! Till then, please review the abstract and post your thoughts here!

We would also like to provide a factsheet and interesting reading material to all youth enthusiasts to equip them with necessary tools with formulating their visions.
Forecasting the future is like going through a foilage with an experience ranger - they would be able to see the surroundings differently, identify the dangers and spot the opportunities, that the untrained eye would miss.
We hope that the next phase of this project would provide us with the necessary tools which in turn we can equip youth space enthusiasts!

I have an idea how to distributre the idea not directly to the world leaders but to the world's youth instead.

There are various youth organisations out there who work for a better world as we do, be it in political, environmental or in other aspects (Avaaz, Taking it Global, etc.)

They all share the enthusiasm, the idea of a better world and the activity of global youth.

We can invite them to have their members participate in our survey and take part in the discussion, thus helping us and at the same time teaching them about space.

Once we have the final roadmap we could send a copy back to the organisations so that the global youth can bring it to the attention of world leaders in a multitude of ways (most importantly by knowing what space can do)- in addition to our efforts.

So, action items would be:

- identify global youth organisations
- identify a way to convince them of the potential for cooperation (e.g. nice letter from (or signed by) the Chair, inviting them to join our project)
- identify plan for cooperation

What do you think?

hi guys
i have an idea of wireless electricity. no one had thought of cellphones without wire 100 years ago but today its a reality. in the same way i think the future is of wireless electricity. imagine an aircraft flying without fuel on electric propulsion. it can increase the amount of load an aircraft can carry instead of the fuel.

in the same way how much fuel does spacecraft carry to go into space. and all space travels are limited in range since they have limitation of fuel that can be used. but with the help of wireless electricity and electric propulsion we can reach any corner of universe. what we need to have is a good wireless signal of electricity and it can also increase the payload.

in some remote parts of the countries like india and many similar countries where electricity is still a dream it can be easily transferred without wires.

imagine your road sides without wire cables hanging.
your cars without batteries.
your home with prepaid or postpaid electric connections.
aircrafts without fuel and jet propulsion.
in fact you carry electricity wherever you go in your pocket.
you do not have to charge your laptop batteries, cellphones etc....

humans are planning to go on moon for holidays. so we need electricity there. but if we have wireless electricity we can transmit from earth and they can receive it there and there is no need to carry other stuff.

that is my idea.

Hello Aashish, thanks for the nudge. I am sorry, a few of us are busy tidiously distilling the inputs from the second survey that will form the paper given at the ISU symposium, so we haven't been too active here. I like your idea - but I wish to discuss this more. As I understand it the problem is more of Energy storage. We have invented ways that are efficient to generate energy (in the case you have taken electricity) for e.g. satellites can reduce the propellent they carry and travel through space via solar sails (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/exploration/futurespaceflight/solarsa...). You are correct that experimental proof of concept for transmitting electricity via resonance exists (http://www.witricitynet.com/). When we go to the Moon - it would be essential to have energy generators but the storage can be done via large flywheel systems (discussed in detail in Madhu Thangavelu's book 'The Moon').. The problem we face with the current grid systems established on earth is that they only allow to draw out from centralized sources of energy (in our case electricity) and this grid is maintained at a constant average input (several renewable energy sources are still not directly fed into the energy grid systems as their output is irratic) and any fluctuation can lead to damage to the grid. [famous incident in the UK - entire country's power went out when a popular soap opera finished and everyone switched on their kettles!] So, we need to construct robust grids that can storage energy and supply instantly to compensate for any change in demand.

Also, i think the idea of 'energy in your pocket' is quite neat. Whilst at university, I worked with one of my profs who ran a project to derive energy from the vibrations caused on timely intervals by say someone walking on a bridge/footpath. I found a similar project carried out in Australia here http://www.gizmag.com/go/3775/ - perhaps interests you? Keep the creative thoughts flowing and those grey cells busy! :-)

I do apologize for mistakening you. I am glad you d like to discuss it more. In fact, I met up with one of my mentors today - an unofficial mentor - perhaps I share him with all of the SGC folks. His name is Jim Burke and he is a life long NASA Superstar if I am allowed to put his role in a 'glam' title... but he started his career as the project manager of Ranger, which was the program just before (i think) Apollo. I am sure you can look him up on google; for years, he ran a project at NASA JPL which tested different simulated field operations for rovers near the white sands desert. He presented my paper at the STAIF conference at Albuquerque, New Mexico and met with several folks who are trying to find an optimum way of storing and distributing energy. Power and Energy storage are the biggest drivers within the current NASA Constellation mission which has slated a lunar outpost on the polar sites (part with constant illumination 'peak of eternal lights' which may receive a near-permanent, constant illumination: again, arbitrated to 70-90% during lunar winter, 100% during lunar summer: link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_of_Eternal_Light). With the additional presence of 'attenuated hydrogen signatures' one can associate presence of water at the southern craters which are permanently shadowed and hence the two favourable sites are Shackelton crater (89,9 S, 0 E) and Malapert mountain (89.9 S, 12.xE)... now, whilst we can collect solar energy and convert it to electricity by installing solar farms at the peaks of eternal sunlight (PES) near the rims of these craters, how do we get this energy without wires to the lunar outpost located somewhere in between of 90-150 kms from the generators? Here's your challenge - any ideas? Several folks are working this: re-thinking the problem and questioning if the whole energy generation design should be different. Any one want to run a brainstorm on what could be potential solutions here relating to Chirag's earlier post?

Let's make Space Happen!

i am looking in detail about the wireless electricity.

i am finding some difficulties with new idea e=which i suggested. i have read a new article and i am trying to implement it.

Dear Chirag,

Why are you focusing on remote electricity transfer from Earth while it may be that the Moon could very probably provide its own energy supplies and much more?! There have been numerous hypotheses on solar and rock-mining energy supplies that may even allow the storage o f power in the form o f batteries or solids that can be transported back to Earth! I will try to find some articles and send them to you…

Regards,

Daniela

The above two messages really belong to the “Concept of wireless electricity” discussion page. On the question posed by Alexkarl, I would suggest that it would be an excellent idea to involve representatives from other organisations. I would further suggest that such involvement should go beyond survey and discussion participation towards training and practical annual summits with organised events. This would allow for greater involvement and integration of the organisations. Furthermore, some of the places of these events should be held on a competitive basis in order to promote evolvement, while most of them should be open for all in order to promote inclusion. Those are just some suggestions. Looking forward to hearing further ideas or concepts for materialisation…

one good source to start from are the Yuri's Night activities around the globe. Many are organised by people that are involved in youth groups or similar that might not be active with SGAC otherwise.

Also, a good overview should be available from the NPoCs ...

has anyone ever started work on such a letter inviting others to join?

Juergen

Hello everyone, I'm new on here and have lots to say about everything i've read so far but I'll start here, with what was talked about most recently.

Solar Power in space (at least where the sun reaches) IS wireless electricity so omitting the problems suggested by Sem such as dark sides of planets we do already have an amazing wireless electricity source in the sun.
Here in Australia we have an amazing resource in the sun, more and more people are using solar power to meet their energy demands and this fuels the research in developing more efficient solar cells.
Research has been conducted into the feasibilty of spaced-based solar power. That is having an earth orbiting satellite that collects solar power and beams it down to earth via microwaves. The microwaves are what could possibly have the detrimental effects on life on earth, but in space this wouldn't be a problem as there is far more harmful radiation flying around in space than microwaves so could we use this technology, which is currently being developed at NASA to beam electricity around to the dark side of planets? any further ideas on "how" we can make this happen in the next 50 years?

Phoebe

This is hopefully a better way, but lets put emphasis on the renewarble energy sources.

Bytheway, thanks Agravatb on your side of what way we can just transfer electricity from other planet to the Earth. Let's use water but be careful they can languish as well!

thanks.

i think uses this method we can reach to mars in futer in less time....

"Engineering, stand by for warp drive." With that command, the "Star Trek" crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise prepared to hurl the spaceship through the cosmos at superluminal speeds. Warp drive is another one of those science fiction technologies, like teleportation and time travel, that have some scientific basis. It just hasn't been achieved yet. However, scientists are working on developing an interstellar spacecraft engine that is similar to the matter-antimatter engine of the Enterprise.
Antimatter spacecraft could some day shorten a trip to Mars from 11 months to one month. Check out current spaceflight technology
No engine is likely to generate superluminal speeds; the laws of physics prevent us from doing that, but we will be able to go many times faster than our current propulsion methods allow. A matter-antimatter engine will take us far beyond our solar system and let us reach nearby stars in a fraction of the time it would take a spacecraft propelled by a liquid-hydrogen engine, like the one used in the space shuttle. It's like the difference between driving an Indy race car and a 1971 Ford Pinto. In the Pinto, you'll eventually get to the finish line, but it will take 10 times longer than in the Indy car.

In this article, we will peer a few decades into the future of space travel to look at an antimatter spacecraft, and find out what antimatter actually is and how it will be used for an advanced propulsion system

-rrashani

oregon vortex
http://www.oregonvortex.com/science.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Vortex

wikipedia states that this is an optical illusion

but this describes the idea that i am thinking of
say theoretically if a small portion of a specific element were availible on earth (cosmic dist, etc.)
then wouldn't it have a similar affect

even though this could have been proven to be an optical illusion
i envision the effect of such a material to have an effect similar to this