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Solar power satellites would be a nice-to-have for the ultimate "clean energy" supply for Earth civilizations. I haven't looked recently to see exactly how prac
by ansible 10y ago
Solar power satellites would be a nice-to-have for the ultimate "clean energy" supply for Earth civilizations. I haven't looked recently to see exactly how practical they are though.
- dirtyaura 10y agoOne would assume that harvesting energy is practical (sans the launch cost), but practical way to transfer the energy back to the earth is the unsolved problem.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoMicrowaves. The problem with that though is, from what I hear, such technology would double as an orbital weapons platform. I wonder what the math says about big mirrors focusing more sunlight over empty areas where we could put lots of solar panels.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hueving 10y agoMuch easier to put solar panels on the ground.
- andygates 10y agoThey're physically huge, so they're a lot more feasible when much of the bulk mass can be sourced "upwell" from (for example) mined resources.
- Jakob 10y ago"While Musk loves electric cars and spaceflight, there's one thing he hates: space solar power. "You'd have to convert photon to electron to photon back to electron. What's the conversion rate?" he says, getting riled up for the first time during his talk. "Stab that bloody thing in the heart!"" http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a8101/elon-musk-on-spacex-tesla-and-why-space-solar-power-must-die-13386162/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a8101/elon-musk-o...