Comments on: Electricity from orbiting solar-powered lasers

By: Read: 14 More Amazing Engineering Wonders of Today & Tomorrow | Cogent Nirvana

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:45:59 +0000

[...] (images via: Inhabitat, Treehugger and Pink Tentacle) [...]

By: See World » Blog Archive » 7 More Amazing Engineering Wonders of Today & Tomorrow

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:03:01 +0000

[...] (images via: Inhabitat, Treehugger and Pink Tentacle) [...]

By: grey eminence

grey eminence — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:16:31 +0000

Yes, and the Laser energy loss during retransmission will be

horrendous, unreliable, deadly, and costly.

This one is already in development. Microwaves versus Lasers

http://nlspropulsion.net/Documents/MPTS_June_2009_No_drawing.pdf

By: Technology News

Technology News — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:26:50 +0000

Thank’s For Sharing (^_^)..he.3x

By: Mike G.

Mike G. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:44:19 +0000

I happen to know a few things about power transmission.

With microwave transmission, a beam with a 1 kilometer wavelength at 2.4Ghz isn’t going to interact with heavier atmospheric gasses (the biggest concerns being CO2 and water vapor) or biology nearly as much as a sufficiently powered laser beam. A microwave beam as described above wouldn’t even effect the atmosphere or biology as much as natural rays from the sun do. This is important when your goal is to create a renewable source of energy that doesn’t have the environmental impact that all current powersources do.

On top of that, with current -proven- technology, converting sunlight into electricity then into microwaves and then back into electricity is far more efficient than converting lasers into electricity, even if you take into account that the tech described in this article creates said laser at 40% efficiency.

Receiving microwaves is currently cheaper and easier to setup compared to receiving lasers. Though a microwave with the same frequency and wavelength as I described above would need a rectenna (a receiving antenna) several kilometers across, it could be made up of simple short dipole antennas connected to each other with diodes (even though this would be the ‘cheap’ method, it still converts 84% of the beam). Most sunlight would shine between the individual antennas, so you could raise livestock or crops underneath, for example.

That all being said, this technology-if it works as described- is still impressive, and laser power transmission in general should certainly still be researched, though it may have more uses in off-Earth applications (such as providing power to spacecraft at longer distances than microwaves could).

By: Super Solar Space Satellite « Cooler Planet

Super Solar Space Satellite « Cooler Planet — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:46:14 +0000

[...] Solar Space Satellite Solar power is the future. We know this because the�Japanese Space Agency�is building�a network of solar laser satellites to power their country, and if building solar [...]

By: chris weiss

chris weiss — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:39:39 +0000

why not cover mars with solar panels then beam the power back to earth via radio waves or some other harmless wave

By: Chetan Chauhan

Chetan Chauhan — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:40:01 +0000

Damn .. Ion Cannon anybody ?
Even the art work looks just like i’m seeing a C&C Game.. The military types will go apt nuts.

Nut seriously , space solar power is definetely worth the cost. There are gigawatts of power out there in Geosynchronous orbit and its a huge crime to let all that essentially “free” energy from the sun go to waste.

By: Inhabitat » New JAXA Technology Captures Solar Energy in Space

Inhabitat » New JAXA Technology Captures Solar Energy in Space — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:23:34 +0000

[...] at Jaxa have found a way to harness solar power even closer to the source- from outer space! The Space Solar Power System (SSPS) technology would capture solar rays in space and transport the energy to be used here on the [...]

By: JAXA testing space solar power system ::: Pink Tentacle

JAXA testing space solar power system ::: Pink Tentacle — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:32:09 +0000

[...] kilometers above the Earth�s surface. The satellites convert sunlight into powerful microwave (or laser) beams that are aimed at receiving stations on Earth, where they are converted into [...]

By: Atila - Solar Power Expert

Atila - Solar Power Expert — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:33:49 +0000

Solar power is everywhere and it is growing everyday. It does not cost anything so we must to find all the ways to capture and use it…I think this is a good try ;)

By: Space-Based Solar Cells Could Power Entire Earth « The Manic Ramblings Of A Swede

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:26:41 +0000

[...] Second article. [...]

By: Narty Atomic

Narty Atomic — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:40:45 +0000

[�] produire autant d��nergie qu�une centrale nucl�aire d�1 Gigawatt. [Asahi via Pink Tentacle] et La Derni�re Question [Wikip�dia] En savoir plus [�]