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Though I guess you would need multiple base stations to beam it somewhere where there's no clouds?
If you have "fusion in a bottle" and don't want to share, this is a decent way to make it harder to steal/damage/use-for-terrorism.
Also, giant beam transmission facilities and giant beam weapons aren't so different from each other. There are going to be detectable critical differences, but with some modifications one can be made into the other.
Radiation damage is going to be a challenge but satellites do with solar for a long time. Onboard robots?
How do they plan to beam energy back to Earth?
Do they need to? I wonder how feasible it would be to put large computational centers in space and have space solar farms powering these computational centers. So if we want to test complex or long-running programs/models/algos, we can just beam it to the computational centers orbiting earth and wait for the results when it's finished.
Finally, somebody decided to make solar collectors in space. Been waiting for it since it was discussed in Isaac Arthur. I bet spaceX might do something similar in the future. When they are not as encumbered with star link and the BFR.
1) It is not much more efficient due to transmission losses. (Compared to high voltage DC.) 2) The costs, on top of super expensive solar panels, make this totally pointless economically. Solar panels are hard enough to maintain on Earth. 3) It's a multi gigawatt level microwave gun in space. Want to blast some lightning onto someone? Sure, now you can. Or fry it.
They intend to beam the energy to earth through a laser. I wonder if building a space-mirror and focussing a beam of sunlight would be a much easier and scalable solution. Though I guess you would need multiple base stations to beam it somewhere where there's no clouds?
Finally, somebody decided to make solar collectors in space. Been waiting for it since it was discussed in Isaac Arthur. I bet spaceX might do something similar in the future. When they are not as encumbered with star link and the BFR.
1) It is not much more efficient due to transmission losses. (Compared to high voltage DC.) 2) The costs, on top of super expensive solar panels, make this totally pointless economically. Solar panels are hard enough to maintain on Earth. 3) It's a multi gigawatt level microwave gun in space. Want to blast some lightning onto someone? Sure, now you can. Or fry it.
still I have to agree, how do you even maintain something like this. it would probably lead to a full time presence in space unless robotics become just that good. I just don't see the ROI except may be for national pride.
They intend to beam the energy to earth through a laser. I wonder if building a space-mirror and focussing a beam of sunlight would be a much easier and scalable solution. Though I guess you would need multiple base stations to beam it somewhere where there's no clouds?
The mirror is a fine grid which makes it much lighter and more resilient, and it is much easier to convert into electricity than light.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they need to? I wonder how feasible it would be to put large computational centers in space and have space solar farms powering these computational centers. So if we want to test complex or long-running programs/models/algos, we can just beam it to the computational centers orbiting earth and wait for the results when it's finished.
How do you cool them in space?
Finally, somebody decided to make solar collectors in space. Been waiting for it since it was discussed in Isaac Arthur. I bet spaceX might do something similar in the future. When they are not as encumbered with star link and the BFR.
1) It is not much more efficient due to transmission losses. (Compared to high voltage DC.) 2) The costs, on top of super expensive solar panels, make this totally pointless economically. Solar panels are hard enough to maintain on Earth. 3) It's a multi gigawatt level microwave gun in space. Want to blast some lightning onto someone? Sure, now you can. Or fry it.
And the efficiency! 10X the solar flux outside the atmosphere! And in the right orbit, 2X again because of course night quits being an issue. So a potential 20X better utility per square.