Value chain · CLM-0923
In plain terms
The 2001 committee says a solar power satellite several square kilometres across would need tens to hundreds of kilometres of cable in total, and that cable mass is one of the costs of using less efficient cells.
The claim as recorded
The 2001 NRC committee states that because an SSP system will be very large, "several square kilometers", "a significant amount of cabling would be needed, tens if not hundreds of kilometers", and identifies cable mass as one of the burdens that reduced cell efficiency drives up along with attitude-control needs and structural mass and complexity. This is a TOTAL cabling length for a system of stated extent, not a single-run length, and the register holds no other cabling-length figure from any source.
Evidence behind this: National Research Council committee assessment, read directly in the held file. Quotations present after de-hyphenation, which this document requires.
Scope and limits
TOTAL CABLING LENGTH AND SINGLE-RUN LENGTH ARE DIFFERENT QUANTITIES AND THIS RECORD GIVES ONLY THE FIRST. CLM-0888's conductor-mass scaling needs a RUN length L, and its mass goes as L squared, so the two figures must not be substituted for one another - tens of kilometres of total cabling across a distributed array is entirely consistent with individual runs of a few kilometres. What this record DOES bound is the geometry: a system of "several square kilometers" has a longest dimension of order two to three kilometres, so CLM-0888's assumed 5 km run is generous rather than low against this source, which converts an assumption into a bounded one without confirming it. 2001, and about NASA's SERT baseline architecture - it is not a figure for CASSIOPeiA or for any concept the register holds separately. "Tens if not hundreds" is the committee's own range and spans an order of magnitude.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
Read first-hand from the held PDF on registration. Verbatim in sequence, printed pp.34-35 (the sentence crosses the page break after "and cable"): "This in turn will increase array guidance, navigation, and control needs; structural mass and complexity; and cable mass, especially for SSP. Because the SSP system will be very large (several square kilometers), a significant amount of cabling would be needed, tens if not hundreds of kilometers." The next paragraph, on p.35, opens with the trade-study absence recorded at CLM-0922. Printed p.37 repeats the point, de-hyphenated: "a large amount of cabling, tens if not hundreds of kilometers, is necessary and will account for a significant fraction of the mass of the system."
Basis: km (cabling length); km2 (system extent)
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-002 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0923
CLM-0923, Energy Aperture, as of 2001.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-054
- CLM-0922In 2001 a National Research Council committee found that the basic trade study for the solar array had never been done, and that the mass...CLM-0924In four parts of NASA's programme the 2001 committee found an analysis missing or a goal without a stated basis: for solar arrays, for how...CLM-0925In 2001 the whole of American space solar-cell research - NASA, the Air Force and industry together - ran at about eight million dollars a...