4 ms·

Wouldn't you be better of having microwave relay satellites than laying wire? Test satellites for space-based solar power (SBSP) are already going into orbit a

• ZetaZero 5y ago
  I'd be interested in seeing the math. Would multiple hops and satellites be required? What's the power loss for each hop? What's the cost and capacity for each satellite?
• wffurr 5y ago
  A giant cable seems less likely to be able to (accidentally?) be repurposed as a space-based death ray.
• mNovak 5y ago
  The loss on microwave relay is just incredibly high (think >90% power loss), because it goes as distance^2. Also there's physical limits on how tight the resulting beam of energy can be -- it's not a laser beam, it'd be irradiating 100s m^2 if not km^2 with whatever it's peak W/m^2 is. Also it can't be anywhere near a useful radio band, because interference.
  • beambot 5y ago
    The distance^2 applies, but it's most pronounced for isotropic source (i.e. emitting across a sphere). If you create a tight beam (think columnated laser), you vastly reduces the overall system loss. The bigger problem for microwave links is converting electricity to RF & back -- you get big losses in the amplifiers, radiators & rectifiers.