Posted on 11/07/2022 8:59:59 AM PST by Eleutheria5
Technology capable of collecting solar power in space and beaming it to Earth to provide a global supply of clean and affordable energy was once considered science fiction. Now it is moving closer to reality. Through the Space-based Solar Power Project (SSPP), a team of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers is working to deploy a constellation of modular spacecraft that collect sunlight, transform it into electricity, then wirelessly transmit that electricity wherever it is needed. They could even send it to places that currently have no access to reliable power.
“This is an extraordinary and unprecedented project,” says Harry Atwater, an SSPP researcher and Otis Booth Leadership Chair of Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science. “It exemplifies the boldness and ambition needed to address one of the most significant challenges of our time, providing clean and affordable energy...
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
#31
Wrong. While the solar collection means my be at “high altitude”, the beams will travel through whereever they are in the atmosphere down through the atmosphere to whereever.
Not if the beaming is done at a fixed point.
The Caltech people can use the known impacts that get through the magnetosphere to quantify and measure the possible impact, and once the amount of energy beam-able is known, build in buffers to control any damage as if you have the full magnetosphere on your side, and then release a little of the buffers, and see what occurs.
I acknowledge that there are risks, but those risks can be worked out under controlled conditions, once you have your collector, beam transmitter, and receptacle in place.
Since there are unknown factors, you find any and all risk intolerable. You’re sounding like Al Gore. Let’s map those risks with experimentation.
We already known what sending electricity through the atmosphere is like - it’s called lighting; and it’s not pretty and it cannot be controlled to ONLY hit a specific target; it is already known that lightning breaks apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere; “buffering” beams of electricity will not change that.
Sometimes science fiction does not translate to real science.
I think too much “hope and change” colored by science fiction has affected academic stream of the folks at Cal Tech.
“Not if the beaming is done at a fixed point.”
All forms of electromagnetic waves of energy are, in terms of passing in the atmosphere, are affected by, and have direction affected by, the absorption and scattering effects of the atmosphere.
The only manmade form that escapes that, imperfectly and for limited distances, is very powerful (using very much energy to produce) intense laser beams. You can expect about 10 miles of visible distance on green 200mW+ lasers and 1,000mW+ blue lasers. And there will even at those powers be some diffusion of the beam; and its questionable that solar arrays can power such lasers, and even if they could the energy loss in the energy conversion - from solar to laser than laser to electricity will be a wasteful energy process.
I doubt you can create a “reciever” for most of the known possible beams of energy to act enough as a magnet to “draw” an energy beam towards it, and without the scattering and diffusion of the energy in its passage through the atmosphere, which will greatly limit the effectiveness of the process as far as energy produced at the solar array verses energy recieved at some “collection point”.
That’s why I say it should be done at a high altitude, to limit the diffusion. I’m not talking Sears Tower high, but Mount Everest high or higher. At any rate, it’s worth experimenting to learn its limits, even if nothing comes of it. Rather than “beaming it” down to earth, there might be some sort of a disposable cannister to bring a fully charged battery down to earth with the collected power, or some sort of an alternative. But dammit, there is unfiltered, untapped power out there, and we should make the effort!
Global warming is bullsh!t, but the wars, oppression and never-ending atrocities committed in the name of obtaining energy cannot be tolerated forever.
There must be an alternative. Nik Tesla was right about that. Unfortunately, his notes on how to just collect and transmit it through the air were either burnt or stolen, or are under lock in key in either Croatia or the NSC. This is an alternative worth looking into if ever there was one. And if that doesn’t work, there are others to investigate. That’s what science is supposed to be about.
“there might be some sort of a disposable cannister to bring a fully charged battery down to earth with the collected power”
Again, not efficient. Mega power batteries weigh to much, so the power to lift and drop them will defeat the level of net power from them.
“There must be an alternative.”
Yes. There is. _Its the latest newest smart safe small modular nuclear power systems. With mass prodution on the scale of the Manhattan Project plus WWII style “warp speed”, there is no need for wind or mass solar arrays, and Nat gas use for electricity will be reduced immensely as well. The only thing missing is the political will.
“Again, not efficient. Mega power batteries weigh to much, so the power to lift and drop them will defeat the level of net power from them.”
You don’t have to lift them in outer space. They’re weightless, and can be constructed in outer space, perhaps even with raw materials mined there. To get them back to earth requires parachutes and insulation, and a decent guidance system.
“Yes. There is. _Its the latest newest smart safe small modular nuclear power systems. With mass prodution on the scale of the Manhattan Project plus WWII style “warp speed”, there is no need for wind or mass solar arrays...
So fine. Develop and produce that, too. Multiple alternatives should be tried, including celestial solar power collection, and different methods of delivering it.
The only problem with “risky schemes” are that there aren’t enough of them, or that they’re poorly thought out and planned.
Sit back in front of your TV and watch Meet the Robinsons, the only decent Disney film recently made. It’ll freshen your outlook on life and science, the latter of which you obviously know a great deal about. It’s your overly cautious attitude that bothers me.
Sorry, the difference between visionary and fanciful is one has enough knowledge to be possibly practical and the other does not.
OK. Have fun being neither.
The difference between being visionary and merely technocratic is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and seeing only the dark at the front. CalTech has its engineers and other practical experts, even if they haven’t discussed it with you or me. I’m rooting for them overcoming the problems which you point out. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. We’ll see.
Curse you, freep software, destroyer of line breaks. If you have trouble following the mess, I’ll stick in the right codes, but the thread is basically over anyway.
Thanks for the update.
I’m an impossible dreamer. Those academics are fakes, per a man with an academic as a father and who could have been an academic himself, and under the Soviets probably would have. I believe a man like that. Old friends from way way back. So I’m p!ssed off. My impossible dream was just a wet one.
But someday, somehow, all that solar energy can be tapped for something or other. It just has to be.
“My impossible dream was just a wet one.”
LOL - Thanks, for the first good morning chuckle. Now I can tell the computere bye bye and get my day going.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.