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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, September 15, 2014 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Paul Jaffe

"Evaluating Alternative Sources of Energy: Solar Energy from Space"

ABSTRACT -- Global warming has focused attention on alternative energy sources that have lower carbon emissions versus conventional energy sources. For decades, proponents of Space Solar Power have advocated for the development of satellites that would collect and transmit energy for use on the earth essentially 24 hours per day, all year round. This approach is billed as a way to overcome the shortcomings of terrestrial solar, wind, and other energy sources which suffer from intermittency, locale dependence, and other problems. By using a quantitative means of comparing the possible costs of Space Solar Power, provisional conclusions can be drawn about the markets and conditions that might or might not argue for its development.

SPEAKER -- Paul Jaffe is an electronics engineer, researcher, and integration and testing section head at the Naval Center for Space Technology at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). In over 20 years at the NRL, he has worked on dozens of missions for NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and other sponsors, including SSULI, STEREO, TacSat-1, and TacSat-4. He developed standards and lead spacecraft computer hardware development as part of the Department of Defense's Operationally Responsive Space effort.

Paul served as a coordinator of the NRL's funded study of the military applications of Space-Based Solar Power, and as an editor of the study group's final report. He was the principal investigator for a four-year research effort involving the development and testing of modules for conversion of sunlight into microwaves.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, graduating with honors. He also earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov