Laser-beaming Electric Power from Space
Imagine beaming electric power from space as a viable solar energy option. The practical application of this concept, engineer and researcher Martin Hoffert maintains, could be markedly accelerated by experiments feasible now ? some employing the International Space Station and including orbital mirrors and microwave and laser-beaming in space. Economies of scale from commercialization also would help to make solar electricity from orbit a feasible addition to the mix of renewable energy alternatives.
Hoffert, professor emeritus and former chair of the department of applied science at New York University, will discuss this theory further in a free lecture, open to the public, on November 4, 2009 at NJIT. His research in alternate energy conversion encompasses wind-tunnel and full-scale experimentation with wind turbines and photovoltaic generation of hydrogen, as well as wireless power transmission applicable to solar-power satellites.
Hoffert has been on the research staff of Curtiss-Wright, General Applied Science Laboratories, Advanced Technology Laboratories and Riverside Research Institute. He has been a National Academy of Sciences Senior Resident Research Associate at the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Widely published, he has written about fluid mechanics, plasma physics, atmospheric science, oceanography, planetary atmospheres, environmental science, and solar and wind energy conversion.
Hoffert’s work in geophysics focused on developing theoretical models of atmospheres and oceans to address environmental issues, including the ocean/climate model first employed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess how the use of fossil fuels contributes to global warming.
Hoffert has a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in astronautics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the Polytechnic Institute of New York). He also has an M.A. in liberal studies from the New School for Social Research, where he did graduate work in sociology and economics.
The talk is the second of the year sponsored by the NJIT Technology and Society Forum, an annual lecture series. It will take place from 3-4:30 p.m. in the NJIT Campus Center Ballroom, located at Central Ave. and Summit St. Event co-sponsors are the NJIT Technology and Society Forum Committee, Albert Dorman Honors College and Sigma Xi.
