“That monstrosity should have been removed from orbit years ago and allowed to burn up on reentry,” Nukaga said. He gave Brad another scowl, as if the space-based laser belonged to him. “Do you see any problems with shooting maser beams from space, Miss Huggins?” he asked.
“There are many potential political roadblocks, sir,” Casey replied. “The Space Preservation Treaty of 2006 seeks to eliminate all offensive space weapons. Specifically, it mentions directed-energy systems capable of producing greater than one megajoule of energy at a range of more than one hundred kilometers. The Skybolt laser on Armstrong Space Station has attacked targets in space, the atmosphere, and even on Earth, at ranges far greater than one hundred kilometers, with far more energy.” Nukaga wore a very sour expression—obviously he knew very well about what the space-based laser had done and was most displeased about it.
“After the reactivation of the Skybolt missile defense laser aboard Armstrong Space Station, as well as the deployment of Kingfisher space-based interceptors, the treaty was presented again and passed in the United Nations General Assembly in 2010,” Casey went on. “The Security Council sought to codify the treaty; the United States under the Gardner administration chose to abstain rather than veto it, and the treaty passed. Although it has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate, the United States has—at least up until now—chosen to abide by it. Therefore, if the maser-power transmission concept is seen by the United Nations as potentially a space weapon, it couldn’t be used unless the United States simply ignored the treaty.”
“Which I sincerely hope is not done,” Nukaga added. “What other problems have you overcome in this project? Miss Cavendish, since you are the advanced-materials student, why don’t you continue?” They all knew that Nukaga would never allow just one member of the team to give a presentation like this, so they all had to be equally familiar with the proposal and prepared to give it at any time.
“Yes, sir,” Jodie said. “The weight of standard silicon photovoltaic cells is simply a deal killer—it would take hundreds of shuttle-sized spacecraft, which we do not have except for some Russian spacecraft, which we probably couldn’t use, or expendable heavy-lift launch vehicles to put enough photovoltaic panels on the spacecraft to make this work. But we and our partners have developed a solar-cell capture technology using multiwidth nanotubes applied to a flexible conducting substrate that could allow the construction of a mile-long photovoltaic cell for the same launch cost as a single furlable silicon solar cell designed to fit inside the shuttle, with several times the power-generation capacity.”
For the first time in the meeting, Nukaga momentarily stopped fidgeting, and the change was instantly noticed by all of the students, even young Lane. “Interesting,” the professor commented as he resumed his finger tapping. “An organic carbon nanotube that is more efficient than a silicon cell?”
“It’s not a carbon nanotube, sir,” Jodie said. She smiled, leaned forward, then said in a low conspiratorial voice, “It’s a multiwidth inorganic titanium dioxide nanotube-structured optical nantenna.”
Nukaga’s eyebrows arched, just for a heartbeat, but to the students around him it felt as if a firecracker had gone off in the room. “Interesting,” he repeated, although all the students could detect a slightly breathless tone in his voice. “An optical nantenna.”
“Yes, sir,” Jodie said. “Using inorganic nanotubes, we’ve designed a way to convert sunlight into electricity at efficiencies thousands of times greater than silicon solar cells. Even better, the structures are hundreds of times lighter and stronger than silicon solar cells.”
He tried very hard to hide his surprise, but Toshuniko Nukaga was starting to look as if he might slip out of his chair. “Interesting,” he managed to repeat, but his finger tapping had completely ceased. “You have fabricated such a structure?”
“I haven’t done it yet, sir,” Jodie said, “but I’ve spoken and corresponded with researchers in Cambridge and Palo Alto, and we could do it here, in our own labs, with the proper support. And, thanks to our team leader, Brad, we have access to researchers all over the world.”
“And what are the advantages of this inorganic nanotube structure, Mr. Kim?” Jerry seemed to have a little bit of trouble answering a question about an area of engineering with which he wasn’t as familiar as some of the others, so Nukaga turned to Brad. “Perhaps you can assist Mr. Kim, Mr. McLanahan?”
“Energy production vastly greater than silicon solar cells, but with far less weight,” Brad replied. “Plus, the solar arrays fix themselves.”