Solar Satellites

Chapter eight discusses the power and energy and transportation future which includes hydrogen and fuel cells. Related topics involve renewables and solar satellite power. The chapter concludes several possible future scenarios and trends in nuclear power. 

Insolation (the solar energy received by an area of 1 m2) varies with the geographic location, weather, orientation of the collectors, and with diurnal and seasonal weather variations. Solar power plants have been built on all five continents, mostly in the high-insolation areas near the equator. There are also plans to collect solar energy on artificial islands in the oceans and in other locations including space stations and solar satellites. 

This division corresponds to the division into rocky planets of the inner solar system and gaseous planets of the outer solar system, separated by the minor planets. By analogy, a larger sequence of solar satellites (planetoids, comets), of which the Pluto/Charon system is the first, is predicted to continue the regular progression beyond Neptune. 

However, like all scientific achievements, it raised as many questions as answers. While the concept of force was introduced to explain planetary motion, the question of interaction at a distance remained unanswered. The mathematical law of gravity that pertains to falling apples as well as solar satellites, had no clear physical basis. Was this divine mathematics or... 

Many comets were detected with the solar satellite SOHO (sungrazing comets), they approach the Sun to within several 10 km or even closer and some of them become evaporated during this approach others may survive several passages. 

P. E. Glaser, Solar-Power Satellites The Emerging Energy Option, Ellis Howard, New York, 1993. 

Because of the high functional values that polyimides can provide, a small-scale custom synthesis by users or toU producers is often economically viable despite high cost, especially for aerospace and microelectronic appHcations. For the majority of iudustrial appHcations, the yellow color generally associated with polyimides is quite acceptable. However, transparency or low absorbance is an essential requirement iu some appHcations such as multilayer thermal iusulation blankets for satellites and protective coatings for solar cells and other space components (93). For iutedayer dielectric appHcations iu semiconductor devices, polyimides having low and controlled thermal expansion coefficients are required to match those of substrate materials such as metals, ceramics, and semiconductors usediu those devices (94). 

Book II investigates the dynamical conditions of fluid motion. Book III displays the law of gi avitatioii at work in the solar system. It is demonstrated from the revolutions of the six known planets, including Earth, and their satellites, though Newton could never quite perfect the difficult theory of the Moon s motion. It is also demonstrated from the motions of comets. The gravitational forces of the heavenly bodies are used to calculate their relative masses. The tidal ebb and flow and the precession of the equinoxes is explained m terms of the forces exerted by the Sun and Moon. These demonstrations are carried out with precise calculations. 

Our solar system consists of the Sun, the planets and their moon satellites, asteroids (small planets), comets, and meteorites. The planets are generally divided into two categories Earth-like (terrestrial) planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars and Giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Little is known about Pluto, the most remote planet from Earth. 

The solar spectrum is, of course, as well studied as our planetary atmosphere will permit. More information will be forthcoming as spectra from man-made satellites are recorded above the atmosphere. At this time, the spectra of many diatomic molecules have been detected. These are not the familiar, chemically stable molecules we find on the stockroom shelf. These are the molecules that are stable on a solar stockroom shelf. Figure 25-3 shows some of these and the location in the periodic table of the elements represented. 

Water and carbon play critical roles in many of the Earth s chemical and physical cycles and yet their origin on the Earth is somewhat mysterious. Carbon and water could easily form solid compounds in the outer regions of the solar nebula, and accordingly the outer planets and many of their satellites contain abundant water and carbon. The type I carbonaceous chondrites, meteorites that presumably formed in the asteroid belt between the terrestrial and outer planets, contain up to 5% (m/m) carbon and up to 20% (m/m) water of hydration. Comets may contain up to 50% water ice and 25% carbon. The terrestrial planets are comparatively depleted in carbon and water by orders of magnitude. The concentration of water for the whole Earth is less that 0.1 wt% and carbon is less than 500 ppm. Actually, it is remarkable that the Earth contains any of these compounds at all. As an example of how depleted in carbon and water the Earth could have been, consider the moon, where indigenous carbon and water are undetectable. Looking at Fig. 2-4 it can be seen that no water- or carbon-bearing solids should have condensed by equilibrium processes at the temperatures and pressures that probably were typical in the zone of fhe solar... 

A collision with a Mars-sized object may have resulted in the formation of the Earth s moon. Our moon is by no means the largest satellite in the solar system, but it is unusual in that it and the moon of Pluto are the largest moons relative the mass of the planets they orbit. Geochemical studies of returned lunar samples have shown that close similarities exist between the bulk composition of the moon and the Earth s mantle. In particular, the abimdances of sidero-... 

M Radionuclide batteries provide high-performance satellites with electricity when solar energy is not enough. 

The process in which the solar system was formed was certainly extremely complex, so there is as yet no generally accepted theory to describe it. The different types of heavenly body (sun, planets, satellites, comets, asteroids) have very different characteristics which need to be explained using mechanisms which are valid for them all. 

Water can be found, in all three aggregate states, almost everywhere in the universe as ice in the liquid phase on the satellites of the outer solar system, including Saturn s rings and in the gaseous state in the atmospheres of Venus, Mars and Jupiter and in comets (as can be shown, for example, from the IR spectra of Halley s comet). The OH radical has been known for many years as the photodissociation product of water. 

Conclusions satellite must be fairly large only one satellite contributes at the solar radius the age structure remains a problem (i.e. that very old thin disk stars are predicted and not observed, so far )... 

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