Puerto Rico: Overcoming Terrestrial Problems To Talk To People In Space
Puerto Rico Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station, NASA
“Several hundred students from 30 schools across Puerto Rico will speak with a NASA astronaut living, working and doing research aboard the International Space Station at 11:15 a.m. EST Friday, Jan. 12. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website Students will travel to Manatí, Puerto Rico, for the call to Expedition 54 astronaut Joe Acaba aboard the space station, and will have an opportunity to ask questions about life aboard the space station, NASA’s deep space exploration plans, and doing science in space.”
Keith’s note: Its nice that students in devastated Puerto Rico will get a chance to talk to the ISS crew. Its certainly a nice distraction from months of arduous living. But there is a reason why “several hundred students … will travel to Manatí, Puerto Rico … More than 500 attendees are expected”. As of last week half of Puerto Rico’s residents are still without power 3 months after Hurricane Maria. So, instead of doing what most students do when they talk to the ISS i.e. log into an Internet connection – they have to get into buses and drive back and forth across the island to go to a location where there is enough electricity to power the uplink.
Oddly, back in 2009 I did an downlink/uplink session to the ISS from Everest Base Camp using a portable BGAN INMARSAT link that fits into a backpack. I charged its battery with solar panels. One would think that NASA might try using some of that advanced satellite technology they like to brag about to do this uplink and not make hundreds of students drive for hours to crisscross the island for a 20 minute event. And the gasoline that the buses are using could have been used to run generators to power satellite links back home using consumer satellite communication systems – and people’s homes.
Its nice that NASA is thinking of the Americans who live on Puerto Rico. Perhaps other government agencies should be working a little harder to make life normal again for our fellow citizens such that NASA does not have to go to such extremes for events such as this.
We should be ashamed that Puerto Rico didn’t get the robust response that Florida and Texas did. Apparently some are less American than others. Meanwhile on the last day of 2017, our President met with the non-hispanic governor of Florida to discuss the ongoing hurricane recovery efforts in Florida.
I wonder how many of those several hundred Puerto Rican students that had the opportunity to talk with astronaut Joe Acaba went home to houses without power or running water, or went home to a shelter.
I apologize, Keith, for the political, non-space nature of my comments.
Totally agree.
The exiting citizens of PR are settling in Florida, and in sufficient numbers to make our fair state reliably blue. So, what goes around…
Puerto Rico started with a big problem that Texas and Florida did not have before the Hurricanes. Their power grid was a poorly designed mess. The only way to quickly rebuild that is to slap up a mess that will fail in the next large windstorm much less another hurricane. I’ve worked in engineering power grids and in the manufacturing of distribution transformers. If you want something in place that will last and be robust and reliable for an island the size of Puerto Rico it will take time no matter how much money you throw at it. In the U.S. mainland almost every transformer is custom engineered based on the current and projected load profile of where it is installed. This includes power factor correction based on the number and size of motors used by industrial customers. Whether you keep overhead service or plow in underground depends on terrain. You need to do load analysis. You need to survey right of ways. In Texas and Florida this has been kept up. It makes it a lot easier to rebuild. In much of Puerto Rico this was never done because Puerto Rico has been poor for a long time. If you want to rebuild a third world power grid go ahead and rush it. If you want Puerto ,Rico to have a robust modern grid that won’t be wiped out by the next hurricane, it’s going to take time even with unlimited money. If you’ve never worked on a power grid you won’t know this. I have. I’m amazed considering the level of devastation they had that half the grid is already up and running.
I will like to see how the nice grid in Texas would behave during a cat 5 storm. Those in the DC are might remember El Derecho of 2012. Cat 1 winds that lasted all but 12 minutes. Our grid in Maryland was down, and we were without power for 1 week. Now, multiply those winds by ~2, add storm surge, driving rain, and let it rip for 12 hours. I know my house in MD would be blown away. Most houses in PR survived. Yes, the grid in Puerto Rico was not well maintained, and the power authority is very corrupt. However, I see a tendency to blame the Islanders forgetting that Puerto Rico was hit by two storms that would devastate any power grid.
C
i sure wasn’t blaming the islanders. I was stating the reality of what it takes to rebuild a grid if you want a solid replacement. In Texas or Florida even with a Cat 5 you would know what to rebuild. You have a solid design to rebuild.
Designing a distribution grid from practically scratch is going to take a lot of time consuming engineering design work. Without it you won’t know what size of conductors, transformers, capacitor banks, switches, pedestals, poles, reclosers, etc. to order, where to deliver, and when.. You need to know what kind of skills and equipment is needed and available. I suspect Puerto Rico needs to spend the billions in aid they did get efficiently or this will happen again. Another issue besides money is finding the number of qualified engineers to do the work. Nothing changes those basic issues.
We’ll see how much of the 94 billion Puerto Rico is now asking for in aid that they will actually get. It’s first up to Congress:
https://www.usnews.com/news…
They could probably just replace and repair what’s broken, without trying to design a good power grid from the ground up. But I suspect that would just be a stop gap. The result would probably be worse than the original, and from what I’ve read, the original grid wasn’t a marvel of efficiency or reliability.
I agree that this is a good opportunity to start over from scratch and actually design, plan and engineer the Puerto Rican grid right. I also agree that that is a massive job, much more so that simply repairing a well-designed system. But maybe it should be done in parallel with temporary efforts to restore minimal service and functionality. Of course, that would cost more, and the whole issue of who pays the bills is (as you note) still up in the air.
I agree that better planning is needed, but that requires a higher level of involvement by DOE and other federal agencies, and some source of funding. We cannot leave PR as an isolated territory to fend for itself, particularly when PR is taken advantage of with uncompetitive rates for shipping. Some investment in education and infrastructure, and training for government personnel would at least help in promoting cohesive and responsible financing for the power grid, which is a big part of the problem. Why not an exchange program with mainland officials and contractors?
As far as stormproofing from a physical standpoint, although underground lines are ideal, in most of Florida the primary countermeasure has been the simple replacement of traditional wooden poles with square poles made of reinforced concrete. Short term outages still occur due to lightning and tree damage to the lines, but the poles themselves can easily tolerate 100mph+ winds so repairs go much more quickly. Wooden poles are still use for smaller branch lines and are still getting blown over in hurricanes. Transformers are protected by overload preventers.
Finally the island needs long term investment in solar and wind energy; it may be cloudy during a storm but the weather clears soon afterward and distributed solar with overnight storage can add resiliance and reduce long term costs. Satellite based internet and buried fiber optic cables can improve comunications resilliance.
Finally, as far as financial development is concerned, eastern PR has potential as a launch site if the government can put together a package that would attract one.
Thanks posting this &to NASA for doing what little it can to make these student’s lives a bit less miserable. If we weren’t all so sucked into the Trump self obsession vortex, maybe the fact that the Federal government’s response is so pathetic in Puerto Rico would get more attention. The continued lethargic response to the power outage is a disgrace.
Here is an energy profile of Puerto Rico’s power supplies. Note they have the largest wind capacity in the Caribbean, but new wind farms have been blocked by local opposition:
https://www.eia.gov/state/p…
There is potential for economic development: “The U.S. Geological Survey assessment also identified the potential for undiscovered natural gas resources in a subsea formation south of Puerto Rico, but the commonwealth has no proved natural gas reserves and does not produce natural gas.”