I learn two tales final week that — on the floor — had nothing to do with one another.
One was a couple of radical plan to beam daylight right down to Earth at evening to ship energy on demand from area.
The opposite was a couple of new Nvidia supercomputer, hand-delivered to Elon Musk’s SpaceX headquarters, that may assist prepare the AI programs operating his rockets and satellites.
However while you have a look at the massive image, these articles validate one thing George Gilder and I’ve been saying for months…
That we’re on the verge of what we name “Convergence X.”
We’re seeing a fusion of applied sciences which might be turning once-separate industries right into a single, self-reinforcing system. In different phrases, vitality, computing energy and manufacturing are all merging into one steady loop.
And that loop is starting to play out above the planet.
A New Grid within the Sky
Area-based solar energy isn’t a brand new idea. It dates all the best way again to the Sixties.
The thought is that satellites may acquire daylight in orbit, the place it shines twenty-four hours a day, and beam it again to Earth as usable vitality.
However for many years, this idea has been dismissed as too costly or too difficult to be sensible.
That’s now not the case at present.
In January 2023, a workforce at Caltech proved it might be finished. Their experimental satellite tv for pc, known as SSPD-1, transmitted 200 milliwatts of energy from orbit to a pair of receivers on Earth., which is
Although that was lower than a cellphone digital camera gentle, it was sufficient to show that the physics works.
And now an organization known as Mirror Orbital desires to perform this at scale.
Their preliminary plan is to launch a constellation of 57 mirrored satellites into low-Earth orbit, every able to redirecting daylight onto photo voltaic farms or cities after darkish.
If the concept works, it may ultimately prolong day by day photo voltaic manufacturing by as much as two hours per web site. This may equate to as a lot as a ten% to fifteen% enhance in annual output with out including a single new panel on the bottom.
Picture: Mirror Orbital
And, in idea, it could erase the largest weak spot of renewable vitality: intermittency.
We talked about the issue of intermittency earlier this yr, when Spain went darkish resulting from a sudden energy crash and never sufficient backup vitality.
However with this photo voltaic array, it could be attainable to have a clear energy supply that by no means goes offline, beaming gentle or vitality anyplace on Earth, day or evening.
Naturally, critics are apprehensive concerning the environmental influence of this cutting-edge know-how. There’s the chance of sunshine air pollution and orbital muddle, and there are legitimate considerations concerning the security of beaming vitality by way of the environment.
However suppose again to the early days of electrical energy. Individuals as soon as thought high-voltage traces had been harmful too.
But inside a technology, we constructed the safeguards that permit electrical energy change the world.
And we’re not the one nation pursuing this new know-how.
As all the time, China is racing to get there first. Its area company has introduced plans for a one-megawatt orbital photo voltaic station by 2030.
That’s sufficient to energy a small neighborhood.
Japan, a rustic that imports over 90% of its vitality, has plans to launch a one-gigawatt orbital photo voltaic array inside the subsequent 25 years.
And the European Area Company’s SOLARIS program tasks that two gigawatt-class stations may ultimately energy 1,000,000 houses.
So what does all this should do with Nvidia and SpaceX?
Earlier this month, Nvidia delivered its latest AI supercomputer on to Elon Musk’s workforce.
Picture: Nvidia
The DGX Spark is a compact AI workstation that packs about one petaflop of computing energy — sufficient to deal with AI fashions with as much as 200 billion parameters — whereas drawing solely round 1,000 watts of energy.
That’s much less vitality than a regular hair dryer.
However what makes the DGX Spark so outstanding isn’t simply its efficiency. It’s the place it’s getting used.
SpaceX now has the ability to coach and deploy large AI fashions inside its personal testing amenities, with out sending information backwards and forwards to the cloud.
Meaning it will probably construct programs that course of sensor information, predict upkeep points and alter flight paths in actual time instantly aboard its rockets and satellites.
In brief, the DGX Spark provides SpaceX the power to create spacecraft that may suppose for themselves in orbit, as a substitute of ready for directions from Earth.
This improve could be a significant enhance for America’s area initiatives.
And while you pair that degree of intelligence with the promise of limitless orbital vitality, you possibly can see why these two breakthroughs are a part of the identical story.
You see, the identical satellites designed to beam energy right down to Earth may additionally ship it to different spacecraft, preserving AI programs just like the DGX Spark operating constantly.
Power feeding intelligence, and intelligence optimizing vitality. That’s the loop forming above us…
It’s Convergence X taking form in orbit.
Right here’s My Take
Convergence X isn’t nearly a single breakthrough.
It’s a couple of sequence of convergences that change the construction of the economic system.
When energy technology and synthetic intelligence meet in orbit, it represents the growth of Convergence X past Earth’s factories and information facilities, and into the vacuum of area.
In fact, each of those advances are nonetheless early.
However so was the microchip when George Gilder launched it to President Reagan.
Area-based vitality may unlock new markets on Earth, enabling 24/7 clear grids and off-world energy for satellites, lunar bases and even asteroid mining operations.
AI supercomputers just like the DGX Spark may change into customary tools in each spacecraft, operating navigation, upkeep and logistics autonomously.
When these two programs ultimately meet we may find yourself with one thing humanity has by no means seen earlier than: a self-sustaining industrial community that extends past Earth’s environment.
That’s the final word expression of Convergence X…
Not simply right here on Earth, however a whole bunch of miles above our heads.
Regards,
Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing
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