Microwaves cause blindness and sterility
- From: "William Mook" <william.mook@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Jan 2007 13:30:31 -0800
The use of beamed energy from space by terrestrial power users is one
way to make significant use of off-world resources. What is the best
way to go? Certainly the sun sends energy to Earth every day in the
form of heat and light and yes, even microwaves. These solar
microwaves are microwatts per square centimeter, thousands of times
weaker than is danger to humans and animals.
From:
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/radiofrequencyradiation/hazards.html
Natural low-frequency EM fields come from two main sources: the sun,
and thunderstorm activity, but man-made fields at much higher
frequencies have altered this natural EMF. At sufficiently high power
densities, RF/MW energy can cause thermal effects that can cause
blindness, and sterility. Non-thermal effects, such as alteration of
the human body's circadian rhythms, immune system and the nature of
the electrical and chemical signals communicated through the cell
membrane have been demonstrated. However, none of the research has
conclusively proven that low-level RF/MW radiation causes adverse
health effects.
Continual exposure to microwave radiation at milliwatts per square
centimeter causes blindness in mammals and sterility in male mammals.
That's because over time, constant exposure to this level of radiation
gradually cooks the vitrous humor and lens in the eye causing it to
cloud up the same way clear egg whites turn white when exposed to
microwaves. Similarly in the testes the tunica albuginea turns solid
form liquid and that closes off the ductus deferens - when exposed
contnuously to low powered microwaves.
Power beaming from space to arrays of rectifying diodes on the ground
with reasonable safety require huge areas of land be illuminated in
order to provide for our power needs. At 100 microwatts per sq cm, a
square kilometer of rectifying diodes.would receive only 1 MW of
electrical power. Constant exposure to even these low levels of
microwave radiation over time can cause harm in a significant portion
of the population over their lifetime. Sunlight by contrast has 100
milliwatts per sq cm, and produces 1,000 MW per square km - and even at
20% efficiency, solar collectors can produce 200x the power as a diode
array at these high microwave power levels.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat2p2.html
To displace the US' 1,015,227 MW with this form of space based power
requires that over 1,000,000 sq km of microwave collector antennae be
installed and to meet future growth and also requires that an
additional 40,000 sq km be added to this system every year! This
requires plating over 11% of the US surface area with diode arrays and
have that total grow by 0.44% of the nation's surface per year!
These receivers if connected efficiently to the national grid will be
near population centers, and even points distant from population
centers have some people. This requires the constant exposure or
relocation of tens of millions of people throughout the United States.
Transmission of powerful microwave beams disrupts microwave
communications and fries electronic equipment. Would you put a cell
phone in a microwave oven and expect it to work? Of course not! But
that's what bathing the entire country in powerful microwaves fromspace
would end up doing.
Yet, the idea of collecting energy from the sun in space has a lot to
recommend it. The only problem is the dangerous nature of microwaves.
We know this from the sad history of microwave workers who have been
irreparably harmed and blinded by long-term exposure to even low levels
of microwaves - in the early days before these dangers were known.
Microwaves are used in the manufacture of plywood, and in a variety of
industrial operations. Workers who operate in these environments are
shielded to reduce exposure to microwatts per cm2. Even 100 microwatts
per cm2 when exposed over long periods of time continuously can cause
damage in a segment of the population.
Is there any other way to collect energy from the sun?
Well, there is terrestrial solar energy collection. Sunlight can be
made to generate electricity directly. If done at a reasonable price
for collectors, this is one way to go. Silicon based concentrating
photovoltaic cells have been developed that reduce costs to less than
$0.10 per peak watt. So, to cover a square kilometer with these panels
requires only $20 million. One difficulty of solar power is that the
sun isn't always shining. So, to use solar energy in any large way
requires that 5 times the needed capacity be installed and the excess
energy made when the sun is shining be stored somehow for use when
times the sun isn't shining. These balance of systems costs can
dramatically raise costs.
A 5 TW solar panel array covering 25,000 sq km is far smaller and more
reasonable and safer than the microwave beaming system described above.
Further, since a solar panel produced direct current electricity, that
electricity can conveniently be used to break down water into hydrogen
and oxygen via electrolysis. The hydrogen can be piped across the
country in a national network of hydrogen pipes, and the pipe volume
can be used as a means to store energy for use during off peak times.
The hydrogen gas can be burned directly for its heat value, or combined
with carbon sources to make hydrocarbon fuels, or used in advanced
systems such a fuel cells to generate electrical energy.
Another way to go is to use infrared laser beams in space to illuminate
solar panels at times when the sun isn't shining,or augment solar
panels during times when the sun is shining. Solar pumped lasers
operating at 1,000 nm range, can beam energy through one of the
atmospheric windows that efficiently transmits energy in this range.
Since 1,000 nm is very near the bandgap energy of silicon, silicon
solar panels are efficiently operated by this sort of beam. A beam
energy of 40 milliwatts per square cm is equal to the direct infrared
radiation from the sun. Since the silicon panels operate efficiently at
this wavelength, laser energy beamed in this way produces 400 MW of
power per square kilometer of collector. Since in cloud free desert
regions the beam can operate 80% to 90% of the time, plant utilization
is increased and energy output for a given area is increased 10x over
the yeear. Thus, to replace 1 TW of power plants with hydrogen burning
power plants requires only 2,500 sq km of collectors be installed.
The unburned carbon fuels can be combined with additional hydrogen and
made into hydrocarbons and sold as transportation fuels.
On the space side IR laser pays dividends as well when compared to
microwaves. The Rayleigh Limit relates the size of a lens with its
ability to resolve or project spots of a given size at a given
distance. Since IR light is hundreds of times shorter in wavelength
than microwave 'light' - the optics - or antennae sizes are hundreds of
times larger and tens of thousands of times more area than their IR
counterpart. This allows the IR laser based power sat to be much more
lightly constructed while maintaining comparable safety and accuracy.
..
Microwaves might still be useful as a space beaming technology. Using
higher power densities - say 2 watts per sq cm - the power density used
in a microwave oven, we could transfer power at a rate of 20,000 watts
per square meter, or 20 GW per square km. This would reduce diode
areas to 50 sq km to power the United States - an area which is more
easily avoided flagged and covered with antennae, than the lower power
system described above.
Microwaves that easily penetrate clouds are about 30 cm long - and the
smallest angular resolution is given by Rayleigh as;
delta-theta = 1.22 lambda / D
GEO is 36,708,000 meters up - and if we say we want to have a spot size
of 0.1 km - 100 meters,(we can produce multiple beams simultaneously
with a phased array of emitters) - then we can compute theta as;
delta-theta = arcsin(100/36708000) = 2.72 microradians
2.72e-6 = 1.22 * 0.3 m/ D ---> D = 134,558 meters diameter
An antenna 110 km across!!! This antenna if plated with PV cells
operating at 20% efficiency, would collect 3.83 TW. Which would be
about the right size for the solar collector driving it. At 20 GW per
square km, a 0.1 km diameter diode array - covering 1 hectare would
provide 200 MW of continuous power through all weather conditions.
These could be overlaid sand on the ground, or made into floating mats
on the ocean. Phased microwave emitters in the diode array could
signal the phased array on orbit and accurately guide the power beam to
the diode receiver. A simple conjugate wave circuit on the transmitter
would assure that power would be reliably sent to ground receivers
regardless of transmitter orientation on orbit. Pulsed operation would
control average power levels over a broad range.
The microwave transmitter of this type would be built up piecemeal from
interlocking repeating blocks. One side of the sheet like block would
consist of low-cost CPV panels. The other side would consist of a
radiator and foil diode array, driven by MEMs based magnetron type
tubes operating in the vacuum of space.
The system massing 2 kg per sq meter would mass 2,000 tonnes per sq km.
The entire array would mass 28.35 million tons! At 1,000 tons per
launch- assuming a heavy lift launcher of this class,28,350 launches
are required to complete this system. Fourteen launches per day are
required to support a 5 year construction schedule. Two launches per
day are required to sustain a 4% growth rate of the system. With a 2
month refurb cycle in each reusable rocket, 600 rockets will be
required during build up and 120 rockets required for maintenance and
planned expansion. The balance can be operated for other purposes or
to provide powersats for other nations after the initial program. If
power is sold for $0.08 per kWh over $700 billion is earned per year by
the system in the US. This revenue stream over 20 years when
discounted at 8% per year - supports $7.7 trillion of capital
equipment. The satellite costs $1.00 per peak watt - half of this cost
is allocated to construction. The other half is allocated to launch
and space operations. $3,500 billion spread over 28,350 launches
implies a launch cost of $122 million each about what a small launcher
costs today. At 1,000,000 kg payload per launch costs per kg are $122
- a cost of 1/100th that of today's launch costs. This seems
challenging.
One way to achieve these very low launch costs is the use of laser
propulsion to send 1 meter diameter hexagons to GEO - massing 1.5 kg
each and coated with an ablative layer massing 4 kg with 2.2 kg of
conventional propellants a total of 7.7 kg for each 1 meter diameter
hexagon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_propulsion
Each hexagon is equipped with MEMs based rockets and micro manipulators
that would allow it to navigate and self-assemble into a larger array
on orbit. This sort of system requires several lasers continually
operating to launch the 18.2 billion building blocks to make the GEO
based powersat in the 5 year time frame allocated.
To achieve this construction in a 5 year period requires a launch rate
of 115 per second! A mass production fcility can handle easily 2
products per second, so 58 such facilities could easily support
production of these items. There are over 700 coca cola bottling
plants in the world. This could be a global enterprise with factories
around the world - or at least across the United States!
A typical wafer fab costs on the order of $2 billion. This facility is
likely to cost as much $116 billion - for the entire set. Operating it
for 5 years might cost $3 trillion - and operating the launch systems
another $3 trillion.
Launching them with laser launchers from each factory site seems the
most efficient.
It takes 10 minutes to cycle a payload through a launch sequence. This
means that at each production facility 1,200 hexagonal panels are made
per launch cycle. The 15 mm thick panels are stacked in 3 stacks of 40
each in a triangular array.a stack 60 cm tall. These sit atop a 1.87 m
diameter nylon disk massing 480 kg and 14 cm thick - 10 launching
lasers per facility will be required. Each laser will operate at 20 MW
and burn hydrogen and oxygen. A launch every minute will take place.
An IR laser powersat is quite different but bearing some similarity to
the system just described The first phase operates at 400 MW per
square kilometer on the ground, with existing solar panel installations
proving many of the innovative techniques of control. It too uses
conjugate optical techniques to track and beam power safely. And it
too is capable of operating at higher intensities than 400 MW. 500
Watts per sq cm have been safely handled in tests with IR lasers
directed as bandgap matched silicon. This is some 250 more power dense
than the microwave systems described above. So, collector areas are
1/250th the area, or .1/16th the diameter of an equivalently sized
power receiver using microwaves. 100 meter diameter receiver diode
array becomes a 6.3 meter diameter PV array to collect the same 200 MW
of eletrical power. Power is delivered in pulses and pulse rate can be
controlled to control power over a wide range. Heavy clouds an
interrupt the operation of this system and so these should be built in
areas that are cloud free.
To make that small of a spot accurately on the ground with a 1,000 nm
(1 millionths of a meter) wavelength requires;
delta-theta = arcsin(100/36708000) = 2.72 microradians
2.72e-6 = 1.22 * 1e-6 m/ D ---> D = 0.488 meters diameter
an optical lens nearly 1/2 meter in diameter. To power a laser with
aperture at 200 MW with an 20% efficient solar pumped laser requires a
parabolic concentrator 1 km across. Since this concentrator can be
made of 50 um thick GBO plastic to concentrate bandgap matched light to
the solar pumped laser, things can be quite efficient and light weight.
At 2000 kg per sq meter for the laser/optics we have 375 kg for the
beam steering portion. The GBO film masses 45 metric tons. Another 54
tons is needed to erect the thin film parabolic dish and keep it
pointed accurately. 100 tons to orbit.
Test system massing 10 tons and only 300 m across generating 20 MW
precede the full scale system.
Each launch results in a completed power beaming system. So, there is
no need to design and support a mulit-trillion dollar effort from the
outset.
there is also no need for this system to operate at 500 Watts/cm2 - its
design limit. But the optics can easily support a larger receiver
area - operating at 38 milliwatts per cm2 - the design for the dual use
solar panel recievers - the 200 MW satellite illuminates a disk 722
meters across (or any shape to a 6 meter resolution) totalling 1/2 sq
km.
As stated previously, 38 milliwatts is a power level at Earth equal to
the direct IR radiation from sunlight.
All power beaming has the potential for danger. Beaming energy at
levels consistent with the energy of sunlight, is practical only in IR
and Vis wavelengths. For silicon based solar panels, IR lasers
operating near 1,000 nm are ideal and operating at 38 milliwats per
cm2. For most practical systems beam energies are operated near their
limits and receiver and beam areas reduced accordingly. These beams
are then controlled safely and isolated from intrusion as any dangerous
object would be.
My approach to power from space it the development of low cost
terrestrial solar power systems that produce hydrogen at very low cost.
This hydrogen is traded for coal at coal fired facilties for its
equivalent heating value. The hydrogen is burned instead of coal. The
coal is then combined with additional hydrogen to produce hydrocarbon
fuels. Those fuels are then sold at market rates. This pays for the
initial terrestrial solar power system.
Small test satellites massing 10 tons are launched on conventional
launchers. 20 MW is beamed to a test site 200 m across from GEO to the
centralized terrestrial solar power site. Success at this scale allows
me to proceed to a larger 200 MW satellite massing 100 tons - 1 km in
diameter, and an even larger 2 GW satellite 3 km in diameter massing
1,000 tons.
10,000 sq km terrestrial solar concessions obtained from a variety of
strip mines based in deserts in the US, allow the capture of 2 TW peak,
of solar power. This provides a continuous output averaged at 400 GW
produce 70 million tons of hydrogen, enough to displace 300 million
tons of coal and make 2 billion barrels of oil.
The addition of IR laser based solar powersats increase peak output to
4 TW and raise average continuous output to 4 TW. This is enough to
produce 700 million tons of hydrogen, enough to displace all 1,100
million tons of coal burned in the US for electricity, and make
America's entire demand for oil, while leaving millions of tons of
hydrogen for direct use.
Dual use solar panels laser recievers produce massive quantities of
hydrogen which is distributed via hydrogen pipeline throughout the
North America continuing the coal for hydrogen process and creating
greater quantities of oil from coal and hydrogen. Hydrogen is also
used directly to augment natural gas supplies and in transportation in
a variety of ways.
Ultimately, microwave based systems are experimented with, and three
large microwave powersats are designed to operate on orbit, generating
a total of 10 TW across three satellites. These are launched in pieces
that self-assemble on orbit by laser launchers. Energy is beamed to
any 1 hectare receiver located anywhere on Earth to receive 200 MW.
Receiver locations are planned to avoid overflight by aircraft to avoid
irradiation. Beams are controlled by conjugate optics throughout in
both the microwave and IR beam transfers and microwave operates in all
weather.
Microwave energy is used directly for electricity production reducing
the use of hydrogen burning. Hydrogen saved is used in more efficient
ways. Terrestrial hydrogen lasers operating at the same wavelengths as
solar pumped lasers on orbit illuminate all optical power systems for
appliances, industrial processes, and mobile applications. A growing
optical power network is eventually linked to optical downlinks in
cloud free areas providing a seamless optical capability.
Laser propulsion technologies create single stage to orbit vehicles and
make commercial ballistic transport and ballistic package delivery a
reality. Ultimately people work live and travel anywhere on Earth -
moving across continents in minutes. Cities disappear and as industry
moves off world, the Earth becomes one vast residential park with the
human population dispersed to the most beautiful place on the planet.
As off world capacity increases - served by telerobotics and later
fully automated - eventually food and fiber is grown aboard large farms
and forests tended on orbit. Ultimately, space homes of immense size
are built and inhabited by individuals and families.
Solar pumped lasers grow in size and efficiencies as well. Moving
inside the orbit of Mercury, the IR and Visible wavelength lasers have
energy densities at their emitters equal to the solar illumination they
see. Energy is beamed in large fresnel optics with many hundred
kilometer diameter apertures across the solar system and beyond -
supporting humanity's expansion into the cosmos.
Powerful laser rockets move asteroids into orbits near human and
robotic labor pools and consumers - laser light sails send probes and
later people into interstellar space to nearby stars, to repeat the
development there.
Ultimately, the power of the sun is reduced and metallic material is
ejected from its interior and used to build a shell around the sun at 1
gee radius. This shell whose surface area is 550 million times the
size of the Earth. The output of the sun is made to vary from zero to
Earth normal intensity at the shell over a 24 hour period. This light
is communicated to the outer part of the shell and reflected back
through power conduits which project energy to support human industry
across the solar system, and interstellar commerce via laser light
sail. The planets including Earth are maintained at their historic
levels of illumination by orbiting lamps - powered by laser receivers
obtaining power from the sun deep within the shell.
.
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