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Lunar Power

Posted by timothy on from the or-plain-old-lunacy dept.

An Anonymous Coward cites this article on ABC News, excerpting: "...the world would have access to a limitless power supply. The moon receives 13,000 terrawatts of power from the sun. Harnessing 1 percent of that energy, he calculates, could replace all fossil fuel power plants on Earth."

3 of 546 comments (clear)

  1. The moon is too often overlooked... by bc90021 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    From what I've read of the responses so far, a lot of you are missing the point.

    For starters, you missed the fact that he suggested mining the moon for the materials needed to build the photovoltaic collectors. That means that the only thing that needs to be put on the moon are some ships carrying parts for a mining operation. (We put ships there thirty years ago with much crappier technology!) It's not all that infeasible, though obviously expenses for space missions tend to rise higher than expected.

    Secondly, unlike an orbital space station or orbital photovoltaic collectors, the moon itself requires no energy to be kept in orbit. So there is no need to expend fuel or energy keeping things up in space, since the moon does that already.

    I know the immediate response to this will be that there are stationary earth orbits. That is true, but the items in them are still subject to the varying conditions of space (solar wind, micrometeors, etc.), whereas something firmly anchored on the moon is not likely to face those problems to the same degree. (Does anyone remember the solar storm that knocked out those communications satellites a while back?)

    Thirdly, the use of the term "microwaves" refers to a section of the spectrum, not the same type of rays used in your oven in the kitchen. They are already used in power transmission here on earth, with no reported cases of harm to any form of life.

    Just thought I'd clear those things up. ;)

    --
    libertarianswag.com
  2. Re:Why go to the moon? by t0qer · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Also, who's gonna pay?


    Would Bill Gate's $40billion dollar personal hord be enough? I could forgive the man for a lot of things if he solved this energy crisis.
  3. The Earth may be round ... by Repton · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ... but the moon is flat!

    It must be: The power bases are going to be placed around the edge!

    (I just hope they don't fall off...)

    --
    Repton.
    They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.