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Given 1.6 sq meter 500W solar panels, that's an area of 320 square kilometers. That can be constructed at $1/w at $100 billion. Also it's not necessary (or tec
by lxe 3y ago
Given 1.6 sq meter 500W solar panels, that's an area of 320 square kilometers. That can be constructed at $1/w at $100 billion.
Also it's not necessary (or technically, it's actually impossible) to have 100% duly cycle laser for propulsion.
It's definitely a megaproject, but it's not a "scam"
- numtel 3y agoFor comparison 320km2 is about 2.5 San Franciscos
- lxe 3y agoI asked chatgpt to make a quick demo to demonstrate the size of the 18x18 km2 square: https://lxe.github.io/map/ https://lxe.github.io/map/
- bumbledraven 3y agoNeat. How did you ask it to make that? Do you mind sharing the transcript?
- lxe 3y agoHere you go! https://chat.openai.com/share/024a7117-f3d0-4a23-8186-86eeeaeab9a2 https://chat.openai.com/share/024a7117-f3d0-4a23-8186-86eeea...
- dylan604 3y agoyeah, when you look at that over the default location over London, it looks big. Moving it closer to the Western US, it looks tiny
- jchanimal 3y agoSize of a Texas ranch. Call it “reverse solar” and you might have a winner.
- 6d6b73 3y agoLasers are running at 30-40% efficiency so for a 100GW laser you need 400GW power plant. But the power plant and transmission has some losses so you probably would need 500GW
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago> That can be constructed at $1/w at $100 billion. Is this in space or on the ground?
- adrianN 3y agoI think for the foreseeable future we'll have better uses for the electricity than powering a laser to accelerate some probes.