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So if this is in LEO... It orbits the whole earth... And most of the time is over oceans where there is nobody to use any beamed power or in darkness where
by londons_explore 3y ago
So if this is in LEO... It orbits the whole earth... And most of the time is over oceans where there is nobody to use any beamed power or in darkness where it cant generate power.
Given that, can it ever hope to work out cheaper than just putting solar panels on the ground?
- gwbas1c 3y agoIt's an experiment to learn about what kinds of panels work best, and about beaming power in general. New technology, especially when it comes out of a lab in an academic setting, is never commercially viable. That often takes years of refining based on lessons from the lab, and from "real" deployments that aren't profitable.
- londons_explore 3y agoSomeone must see a path to being profitable one day or they wouldn't be funding research into it...
- ZeroGravitas 3y agoSome might be looking for funding to do rocket launches, without caring if the payload they are promoting makes any sense.
- macintux 3y agoFrom the article, the primary funding is from someone who got excited by the idea when he was much younger. I sincerely doubt he expects to make his $100 million back.
- WJW 3y agoIt's a demonstrator, trying to verify that the technology can work at all. The real version would be sent out to an orbit where there is always a direct path to the sun, but sending out spacecraft that far is much more expensive than just shooting them up to LEO.
- londons_explore 3y agoBut at those higher orbits, the size of the antenna necessary to get sufficient directionality gets waaaaaay bigger right?
- WJW 3y agoThere's lots of space up there though.
- dredmorbius 3y agoLaunch cost scales with orbital distance.
- ordu 3y agoYeah, and I presume this is one of the reasons they've chosen LEO. To cut costs of the experiment.