[RightWhale]

---

This is what we mean by solar power: not solar cells on every roof, not woodstoves, not ground-based solar furnaces. Solar cell setups are still $5 per watt, aren't they?

[RightWhale]

X-prize and everything else ping

[B-Chan]

Related story: “China to launch Heavenly Vessel”

[boris]

This is nuts for several reasons. I once saw an estimate that--to build orbiting solar stations, it would take 50 shuttle flights per year. Add that to the cost.

If it rains where the receiver is, the amount of radiation reaching the antenna is reduced.

The animal rights nuts will go ballistic whenever a goose flys through the beam and dinner is delivered--pre-cooked--out of the sky.

Not to mention the NIMBYs opposing siting of the antennas, Earth Firsters sabotaging them, airplanes flying through the beams and having various systems roasted, etc, etc.

An idea whose time is went.

--Boris

[talleyman]

All your space base are belong to us!
(Is that better?)