\< Solar Smiles ت ت ت ت ت Solar Power Satellite (SPS) <body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/3543688412569071202?origin\x3dhttp://solarsmiles.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script> <iframe src="http://www.blogger.com/navbar.g? targetBlogID=3054107564476057249&amp;blogName=solarsmiles.blogspot.com&amp;publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&amp;navbarType=BLACK&amp;layoutType=CLASSI C&amp;homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Furl.blogspot.com%2F&amp;searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Furl.blogspot.com%2Fsearch" height="30px" width="100%" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" id="navbar-iframe" frameborder="0"></iframe> <div id="space-for-ie"></div>
(: Solar Smiles :) - (SPS)
WELCOME


:D

Our Project!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Student-Initiated Assessment (SIA):

“Green TEA” (Environmental-based Textbook Extension Activities)

Group name: Solar smiles

Members’ names (index number):

1. Chua Sin Ying (3)

2. Hoong Shao Ting (8)

3. Wong Wai Tiem (32)

Class: 303

Title of SIA: Solar energy

Briefly describe the ‘green’ issue chosen

Solar energy is energy from the sun. The sun is an easily available and sustainable resource. Solar energy is renewable and it does not harm the environment. It is very clean and very accessible to most people. If solar energy is used to replace natural gases and fuels in more areas, the above mentioned would be able to last a longer period of time and not be depleted so quickly. Also, the reduced burning of fuels will benefit the environment and prevent worsening of ozone depletion.

The issue that we hope to focus one would be regarding how modern day space exploration affects our use of solar energy. Currently, one of the major ways that we have harnessed solar energy in space would be through Solar Power Satellites (SPS). These are satellites with large arrays of solar cells placed on them, able to convert solar energy to electrical energy and send them back to Earth via microwaves. The SPS would be able to provide Earth with a huge amount of energy for 24 hours all day round and all year round, hence making it a valuable source of energy.

SPS has been keenly observed by various space agencies worldwide these past few years, including NASA and the US Department of Energy, which jointly studied the further improvement and usage of the SPS. SPS2000 is actually a research model that has been created by scientists in order to find out more about the practical issued about the SPS in order to better harness the usage of solar energy in space.

State the rationale for your group’s choice of ‘green’ issue

Solar energy is large enough to be able to satisfy the energy demands. This makes it an ideal replacement for traditional energy sources, like fossil fuels. Hence, our group thinks that more research could be done in this area so that solar energy can replace other non-renewable sources of energy in the future, causing less harm to Earth.

We were also interested in how solar energy can be and is harnessed presently in space. As solar energy originates primarily from space, we thought that it would be interesting to research about ways humans have used their knowledge about the outer space in using solar energy. Plus, the only ways of harnessing solar power that we have seen are all found on land (e.g. solar heating panels), therefore researching on solar power usage in space would be a new topic for us.

Also, the SPS is actually a pretty recent topic, and there are still many areas yet to be discovered. Therefore, we feel that it would be beneficial for ourselves as we would be able to find out and perhaps deduce facts on our own apart from being presented with them. Also, we would like to share our findings with people of our age as we feel that in the future, we would most likely be the ones who would be making full use of this source of energy, and finding new and proper ways to harness it.

Briefly list the physics principle(s) related to the ‘green’ issue

1. Energy is defined as the capacity to do work.

2. The principle of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changes from one form to another.

Identify sources of reference materials that could be used in your research

(Information on author not available), 2007. (Information on edition not available). Solar Energy

[online]. My Solar Energy At Home: MySolarEnergyAtHome.com. Available from:

http://www.mysolarenergyathome.com/

[Accessed 24 Jan 2008]

Energy Information Administration, 2007. (Information on edition not available). Renewable Energy-Solar Energy, radiant/light energy, heat/thermal energy [online]. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy: The Energy Kid's Page. Available from:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/solar.html

[Accessed 24 Jan 2008]

Loo W. Y., Loo K. W., 2007. Second Edition. Physics Insights-‘O’ Level 2nd Edition. Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd: (information on place of publication not available).

Dr. Seth Potter, 1998. (Information on edition not available). Solar Power Satellite primer [online]. Solar Power Satellites: An Idea Whose Time Has Come. Available from:

http://www.freemars.org/history/sps.html

[Accessed 28 Jan 2008]

Researched by: all 3 members
Compiled by: all 3 members
Posted by: Wai Tiem

writtern @9:44 PM