This page describes our concept plan for launching our space-based solar power systems into space, ensuring their smooth operation, and all the logistics involved. **TODO:** add stuff written by the aeronautics team (currently in a Google doc). Also we will need to add a secondary page that can be called "Guide to astrodynamics" that explains the prerequisites to be able to understand the stuff here. ## Space vehicle design If possible, we would love to partner with [Elara aerospace](https://www.elara-aerospace.com/) (not related to us) and have some of our components ride on their rockets. ## Rocket launches [Ocean-based launches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Launch) are a possibility for safety and efficiency. Ultimately, Project Elara relies on economies of scale to be able to launch the number of satellites it needs into space. The prototype 1 MW power satellite can theoretically be launched in one piece (barely) if we engineer it carefully (we have launched [space mirrors of this size before](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znamya_(satellite))), but the GW-rated power satellites - the first truly operational power stations, able to each power 750,000 homes - would be more than a kilometer wide, and must require multiple launches and autonomous space construction. Finally, the TW-rated power satellites are behemoths on another scale, more than 10 kilometers wide and each able to power half the planet (at 2019 levels of global power consumption). By using the electricity from Project Elara's existing power plants, electrolysis of ocean water can happen at a large scale to produce the liquid hydrogen and oxygen required for rocket launches at virtually no cost. It can also be used to produce methalox rocket fuel with some modifications with atmospheric carbon dioxide. This can drive down the cost of launches significantly, though ultimately, international collaboration between institutions, labs, and (at some point) space agencies will be necessary to pool together resources to fund the launches. If this does end up being realized, it will be a Manhattan Project-level undertaking - but again, we aren't in a rush and we believe in [building things like a cathedral](https://www.freerange.city/p/incremental-cathedrals). However, given that we still have the problem of money, it is essential that we be as careful as we can and construct our power satellites methodically, testing everything before putting anything into space. We truly have only one shot because we can't afford to blow up a million dollars (or more). We'll need to institute a policy that a launch should be aborted if there is anything found pre-launch that's awry. But if we indeed get the technology demonstrator, and then the 1 MW prototype launched into space, the road becomes much easier from that point on. ### Creating employment opportunities We hope to use the opportunity to be able to employ those who are unemployed and in desperate need of a job to give them an education at Project Elara and the chance to work a paid job in space vehicle design, part assembly, or even as an engineer. ### Environmental impact of rocket launches Using purely LOX/LH2, especially produced via electrolysis of seawater (as described previously), means that the rocket launches themselves will be quite clean: the exhaust is just water and most of it will fall back down to the Earth as rain at some point. However, note that _most of it_ is not _all of it_; after the rocket passes into the stratosphere, the water vapor can stay as a greenhouse gas. ### Avoiding space trash To not cause additional space junk, we want to use **reusable rockets** as much as possible, since the primary component of possible space junk from our launches would most likely be discarded rocket booster parts.