thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
An experiment - which was successfully demonstrated on Earth - was launched into space in January. It uses solar collectors and a microwave system to beam power down to the planet, and they have been successful!

The part that I especially loved was that it was beamed to a receiver on the roof of the "Gordon and Betty Moore Laboratory of Engineering on Caltech’s campus in Pasadena." Sadly, Gordon Moore passed away about a month ago. It would have been so awesome if he'd been around to see it happen!

One thing that I wish the article had addressed, and perhaps future articles will as this one was kinda scant on details, is what is the transmission efficiency and how well do they expect it to scale up. Solar panels have enjoyed great improvements in efficiency in the last few years, and obviously they're more efficient in space. Inquiring minds want to know!!!

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-beam-space-based-solar-power-earth-first-tim-1850500731

Date: 2023-06-06 05:45 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] acelightning73
I remember some of the early SF novels that incorporated "solar power beamed to earth from reflectors in orbit", and there were always large dead zones where the beam touched the ground. And regions where aircraft and spaceships couldn't fly because flying through the beam would destroy the electronics, and maybe kill all the people aboard. (And sometimes they just run the power through the support structur for the space elevator.)

Date: 2023-06-07 05:43 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] acelightning73
I had graduated from high school with the intention of becoming a physicist. I had also tried to talk my parents into paying for flying lessons for me (I was in the Civil Air Patrol.) I'm sure you already figured out that I have pretty decent nerd creds :-)

Date: 2023-06-08 04:48 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] acelightning73
Thank you for the geek compliment! All the computers on my LAN have names. My previous computer was NCC-1701, and when I got this one, I named it NCC-1701-X ("no bloody A, B, C, or D!" - just X for the newest shiniest starship the Federation could build.) I couldn't get that on a license plate in NJ - you're limited to seven characters.

And when my daughter-in-law gave us her car when ours drowned just before Xmas, she had go give us the title (from NY state) and everything. The NJ DOT is giving us a hard time about registering the car in NJ. (D-in-law got some kind of eye inflammation, possibly COVID-related, and she can't see well enough to drive any more. So they gave us that car. And I've mentioned that they gave me an air fryer because their landlord had to install a new stove, and there's an air-fry function in the new stove. (And my son also bought me a steamer.)
Edited Date: 2023-06-08 04:49 am (UTC)

Date: 2023-06-06 10:57 pm (UTC)
disneydream06: (Disney Surprised)
From: [personal profile] disneydream06
I can hear the oil industry grumbling already. :o
Hugs, Jon

Date: 2023-06-11 04:58 am (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
We'd like to know how efficient the transmission was, and whether there would be any kind of issues in scaling up, and all of those other things. I'm sure they're still fine-tuning it in the "enough power to light up an LED" phase before going big.

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