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For the first time in decades, Congress seems interested in space-based solar power (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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US Congress Breaks Ground on Space-Based Solar Power: A Small but Significant Victory for Space Exploration Enthusiasts

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I didn’t see any mention of how they actually get the power down to earth. Really long cable maybe?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They did a test with microwave to transmit energy from space to Earth. There is some serious drawback in doing it via microwave though, so I'm curious on how they'll transmit a huge amount of energy without heating up or causing residual damage to the environment.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And ppl think wind turbines are deadly to birds, imagine a flock flying through a trillion watt microwave beam.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_gun

The sun gun or heliobeam is a theoretical orbital weapon, which makes use of a concave mirror mounted on a satellite, to concentrate sunlight onto a small area at the Earth's surface, destroying targets or killing through heat.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Ion canon ready

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah seems like there's a general thermodynamics problem with sending a bunch of energy through the atmosphere

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Most proposals I've seen involve using microwave transmission to a ground-based receiver dish.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I imagine it would be something like the wireless energy beaming tech in this TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxrB7PDLJ18

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Last year, at the International Space Development Conference, a NASA official said the agency had begun a short-term study evaluating the prospects of space-based solar power. This was the agency's first real look at the subject in about two decades. However, that study has not been released publicly, as there were apparently some policy concerns about the first draft. The revised study may finally be released in late June or July.