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Assuming that this technology can advance enough to become practical; are there orbits a satellite can take where it could collect sunlight continuously (i.e. i
by didgetmaster 4y ago
Assuming that this technology can advance enough to become practical; are there orbits a satellite can take where it could collect sunlight continuously (i.e. it is not in the Earth's shadow very much) yet still be over a spot where it could deliver energy to a desired point on the Earth for a significant amount of time?
- 0x0203 4y agoYou can look up sun-synchronous orbits; orbits that are mostly polar, but can be set up to continuously face the sun and without ever going into the earth's shadow. For continuous power delivery to a single ground station from such an orbit, you'd need several satellites. (If you remove the requirement to never be in shadow, but just mostly never, there are quite a few orbits that could be set up.) Geo-synchronous orbits would always be stationary above a single point on the earth's surface and could therefore potentially get away with just one solar collector, but you are guaranteed to be in shadow at some point and taking up that much space in the very precious geo-orbit is unlikely.