“How do they do that?”
“Because the substrate upon which the nanotubes are built is not metal, but flexible sol-gel material that not only allows electrons to flow from the nanostructure to the collection system with greater efficiency, but acts as a shock absorber,” Brad said. “If the solar array is hit by orbital debris, the break is electrochemically reconnected, like damaged skin. It forms a kind of scar tissue, like human skin, which is not as photovoltaic as the original, but at least the array is still functional. Plus, the defensive lasers aboard Armstrong Space Station could be used to deflect debris that might seriously damage the nantennna arrays.”
“Defensive lasers? I hardly think so,” Nukaga remarked. “Continue.”
“The titanium-dioxide nanotubes are impervious to cosmic radiation and the solar wind, and the sol-gel substrate can handle large changes in temperature with only minimal and temporary changes in conductivity,” Brad said. “The structures we can put together can be enormous, perhaps stretching as far as several kilometers. This will allow us to eventually conduct several energy shots to different spots all around the globe in one orbit.”
Nukaga was obviously not impressed with Brad’s response—it was a huge oversimplification of a very complicated process that the team needed to have nailed down before the university was asked to grant thousands or even millions of dollars to research. “And how would deployment of Starfire work?” Nukaga asked. He turned to Jerry. “Start us off, Mr. Kim.”
Jung-bae frowned as he collected his thoughts, but pressed ahead with only a short delay. “One of our imperatives in this project was a size limitation, sir,” Jerry said. “The S-19 Midnight spaceplane, our preferred delivery vehicle for the space-based components, can carry a payload of approximately nine thousand pounds in its cargo bay, with some rather small size dimensions. That was a problem at first. Even using expendable boosters along with the spaceplanes, it would take many years, perhaps even decades, to build Starfire.”
“And how did you solve this? Nine thousand pounds seems like a lot, but not when you have to build an entire expansive spacecraft from scratch.”
“It would not be from scratch, sir,” Jerry said. “Our proposal specifies the use of Armstrong Space Station, the International Space Station, or China’s . . . China’s . . .” Again he had trouble searching his memory.
Nukaga glanced at Brad, silently allowing him to assist. “China’s Tiangong-2 space laboratory, sir,” he said.
“Why these spacecraft? Mr. Eagan?”
“Because except for Tiangong, the others are old and ready to be changed to unmanned platforms, sir,” Lane said. “Armstrong is almost thirty years old and ten years past its design service life. The ISS is twenty years old and approaching its design limit—it has been scheduled for deorbit in five years.”
“And Tiangong-2?”
“The Chinese are expected to launch Tiangong-3 in just a few weeks, sir,” Lane said. “We think they wouldn’t mind letting their laboratory be used for this project. If Starfire works as planned, we’ll be able to shoot electricity into the most remote regions of China—even to the top of the Himalayas!”
“What other problems lie ahead? Miss Cavendish?”
“It’s a matter of getting the nantenna, capacitors, control equipment, microwave cavity, and maser-beam generators and associated equipment up to the station,” Jodie said. “We estimate that we can get all the panels up into orbit in just ten missions in the spaceplanes, or four if we use expendable rockets.”
“That seems extraordinary,” Nukaga remarked. “How did you estimate that, Miss Huggins?”
“That’s based on Jodie’s estimate of the thinness of the nantennas and the dimensions of an S-19 Midnight spaceplane’s cargo bay, sir,” Casey replied. “We compute that one rolled-up nantenna array five hundred meters long and thirty meters wide can fit in the Midnight’s cargo bay, well within weight limits because the nanotube structure will be so light. Our original design calls for a total of eight of these panels. We’d then need two more flights to bring up the extra equipment.”
“That seems unrealistically optimistic, Miss Huggins. Mr. McLanahan?”
“We propose using a lot of the equipment that’s already aboard Armstrong Space Station for this project, sir,” Brad said. “Armstrong is particularly well suited for our project because it already has a lot of the beam-control hardware, capacitors, and aiming systems we need for the maser. It’s all already up there—we don’t have to launch it, just update software and some of the hardware. It’s a lot better than having all that stuff burn up after being deorbited.”