Server Sky - Energy in Space, Information on Earth

National Space Society, Seattle Chapter

Sunday September 9, 2015 700pm to 830pm

Red Barn, Museum of Flight

9404 East Marginal Way S, Seattle, WA 98108

http://server-sky.com/SeaAbstract


Space activity is growing too slowly. Meanwhile, the global semiconductor industry grew from the first planar integrated circuit in 1960 to 335 billion dollars in 2014, five times the size of the space industry.

What if we bet our space future on new transistors, not new rockets? Server sky proposes to radically increase the value per kilogram of satellite launched to orbit. Internet for the developing world, and new space-based small businesses, will rapidly expand launch rates, the only proven way to lower per-kilogram launch cost.

Server sky will deploy billions of 5 gram plate-sized "thinsats", aluminum foil satellites with 5 watts of solar cell on the front, and ultrathin silicon chips on the back, converting sunlight into computation and communication. 8000 thinsats deploy into stretched geodesic ellipsoids 100 meters across. Millions of arrays share a 6411 kilometer altitude equatorial orbit. Thinsats are propelled and steered by light pressure, like a solar sail, and radiate heat into deep space. Arrays communicate to phased array antennas attached to cell towers below.

We have built an international team, developed a business plan, and found new applications and opportunities, including the tracking, capture and reprocessing of most space debris. A 10 kilogram experimental deployment of thinsats, Hitchhiker, will test concepts and technologies, and attract next-round investment.