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Idea: achieve massive power provision by transmitting energy from a base station to the spacecraft using space lightning. Transmitting power is not a new idea:
by gorgoiler 2y ago
Idea: achieve massive power provision by transmitting energy from a base station to the spacecraft using space lightning.
Transmitting power is not a new idea: lasers are the go-to example for this. Powering the craft with solar energy is another theoretical way of doing it.
My idea on the other hand is different. Imagine spooling a long wire behind the space ship and just transmit electricity to it the same way you transmit power to your hoover. Except instead of sending power up a wire, send it up as bolts of lighting through the ionised gas trail your ship is trailing behind it.
- idontwantthis 2y agoI don’t think it leaves behind a trail of ionized gas. The positive and negative ions get recombined.
- kurthr 2y agoUnless you have two beams, it would have to AC. You'd have to keep the series capacitance low enough that a significant amount of power is conducted (which might kill it). Remember that free space impedance is 377ohms sqrt(mu0/eps0) so non-photonic power likes to become Lambertian radiation.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]