He says in the video the density would be low enough it would just feel warm but you could stand in the path of the beam.
Could it be focused more? Sure. Any SPS is dual use technology.
China's Space Program News Thread
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He says in the video the density would be low enough it would just feel warm but you could stand in the path of the beam.
Could it be focused more? Sure. Any SPS is dual use technology.
For how long?
Presumably each relay satellite would need a large rectenna, in order to capture a beam that's been spreading for 300,000 km. How would a collection of these be cheaper than ONE solar power satellite made from Lunar substances?
I think you are exaggerating the beam spread at that distance.
Also Criswell talked about putting the reflectors in lunar orbit.
Another link on LSP.
It claims it was considered by the Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology in China.
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If the reflectors are in lunar orbit, they (and the Moon) will be below the horizon for half of an Earthly day. Which means no power for half the day. Like a farm of solar panels on Earth, but vastly more expensive. Brilliant.
An SPS in geosynchronous orbit will be in sunlight nearly all the time, and because it's in GEO, the SPS will constantly be in the same place in the sky from the perspective of an Earth rectenna. Thus the power will be nearly continuous.
According to the Wired article, the Qian Xuesan Lab was working on supplying a lunar base. That would actually make sense. But I thought we were talking about supplying huge amounts of energy to Earth, which is what solar power satellites (SPSs) were designed to do.
Yeah, I am sure a guy with a PhD in Physics from Rice University who worked on this for several decades, including at NASA Johnson Space Laboratory, was dumb enough to miss something a bunch of people on the Internet would come up in a couple of minutes.
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I see: you've been spreading confusion.
(1) Your reference to Qian Xuesan Laboratories was misleading: the Lab's research was aimed at supplying Lunar bases, not rectennas on Earth.
(2) David Criswell's paper explicitly stipulates a relay in Earth orbit (6), for the half a day that the Moon is below the horizon of an Earth rectenna. My answer to that continues to apply: "Presumably each relay satellite would need a large rectenna, in order to capture a beam that's been spreading for 300,000 km. How would a collection of these be cheaper than ONE solar power satellite made from Lunar substances?"
Furthermore, once the infrastructure for building one SPS is in place, more SPSs can be built quite cheaply if we use resources in space (like Lunar silicon and Phobos water). A constellation of SPSs can supply continuous power to almost anywhere on the planet. This could save the Earth from global warming.
Lots of people prefer to ride their hobby horses and ignore alternatives. Even PhDs from Rice University.
Dude, did you read what I posted? He claims the relay satellite would have 1/300th the mass of a solar power satellite.
Also, what makes you think bringing the satellites from the Moon would be that much cheaper? What you are talking about would require a massive lunar transportation industry. You would need to lift hugely massive solar power satellites from the Moon and carry them all the way to Earth orbit. Which would not be cheap.
Also, what makes you think bringing the satellites from the Moon would be that much cheaper? What you are talking about would require a massive lunar transportation industry. You would need to lift hugely massive solar power satellites from the Moon and carry them all the way to Earth orbit. Which would not be cheap.
Back to the topic.
"The project, according to Long, would begin with a small-scale electricity generation test in 2022, leading to a megawatt-level power generation facility around 2030.
Commercial, gigawatt-level power generation would be realized by 2050. This would require more than 100 Long March 9 launches and around 10,000 tons of infrastructure, assembled in orbit. The complex project calls for a solar energy collection system with an area on the order of square kilometers and a large microwave power transmission sub-system.
Qi Faren, another senior space figure and chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, also spoke of the complex megaproject and its potential value day earlier.
Both Long and Qi however note major challenges including economic feasibility and manufacturing costs, as well as the efficiency and safety of energy transmission.
Space-based solar power projects have previously been considered by countries including the United States and Japan. China listed space-based solar power as a key research program in 2008, according to Xinhua. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) in 2019 began building a test base in Chongqing Municipality for researching high-power wireless energy transmission."
The SPS is still way out there.
"The project, according to Long, would begin with a small-scale electricity generation test in 2022, leading to a megawatt-level power generation facility around 2030.
Commercial, gigawatt-level power generation would be realized by 2050. This would require more than 100 Long March 9 launches and around 10,000 tons of infrastructure, assembled in orbit. The complex project calls for a solar energy collection system with an area on the order of square kilometers and a large microwave power transmission sub-system.
Qi Faren, another senior space figure and chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, also spoke of the complex megaproject and its potential value day earlier.
Both Long and Qi however note major challenges including economic feasibility and manufacturing costs, as well as the efficiency and safety of energy transmission.
Space-based solar power projects have previously been considered by countries including the United States and Japan. China listed space-based solar power as a key research program in 2008, according to Xinhua. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) in 2019 began building a test base in Chongqing Municipality for researching high-power wireless energy transmission."
The SPS is still way out there.
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