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The problem is that algae is biomass. Thanks to conservation of mass, whatever amount of biomass you bring down from space needs to come from somewhere, and spa
by ori_b 13y ago
The problem is that algae is biomass. Thanks to conservation of mass, whatever amount of biomass you bring down from space needs to come from somewhere, and space is famously devoid of mass, let alone anything for algae to consume. That means that the problem of algae farms in space becomes one putting algae food into orbit.
I'm not sure how effective launching literally tons of material into space will be.
- scarmig 13y agoTons is an understatement. You're forgetting the one plausible energy source, however: the gravitational energy that the biomass has in outerspace. If you could figure out how to capture the energy of millions of tons of material moving from orbit to the Earth's surface, that might be able to provide the large majority of the energy needed to bring it up there in the first place. I wonder how efficient we could make space elevators.