Weeks after announcing its plans to build the world’s largest dam, China has presented another ambitious project, but this one in space. The concept, which has been described by Long Lehao, a Chinese rocket scientist, has been referred to as “another Three Gorges Dam project on Earth”according to an article in the South China Morning Post.
The initiative involves the deployment of a huge kilometer-wide solar panel in a geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometers away on Earth, where it can collect solar energy uninterruptedly, without being affected by the planet’s day-night cycle or weather conditions.
Long compared the project’s potential power generation to that of the Three Gorges Dam, which currently produces around 100 billion kWh a year. about 20% of the country’s energy consumption. Built on the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam is so enormous that it has slowed the Earth’s rotation by 0.6 microseconds, according to NASA.
“We are working on this project now – explains Long -. It is as important as moving the Three Gorges Dam into a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above Earth. It is an incredible project that we are looking forward to. The energy that would obtain in a year would be equivalent to the total amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth.”
The scale of the project requires the development and deployment of super-heavy rockets, meaning China’s space technological capabilities will have to make enormous leaps in the coming years. He Long March-9 (CZ-9), a reusable heavy-lift rocket developed by Long’s teamis being touted as the launch vehicle for the project.
“While the CZ-5 is about 50 meters high, the CZ-9 will reach 110 meters – adds Long -. “An important use of the rocket will be the construction of solar power plants in space.”
It should be noted that the CZ-9 can transport up to 150 tons to low Earth orbit, surpassing NASA’s heavy-lift Saturn V and Space Launch System (SLS) rockets, which have a capacity of 130 tons.
Although Long’s concept seems straight out of a science fiction novel, it is not the first time it has been proposed. Space solar power plants that collect energy from the Sun in Earth’s orbit and send it to Earth They are known internationally as the “Manhattan Project of the energy sector.” The idea has been debated in scientific circles for decades. However, China’s plan represents one of the most concrete steps toward realizing this vision.