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NASA Abandons SimCIty Microwave Power Concept
TexasDex writes "Wired reports: The NASA Space Solar Power project--a method of collecting solar energy efficiently from space and beaming it down to earth--was canceled in early 2001 after enjoying intermittent attention from scientists. NASA officials cited a policy shift toward the International Space Station and the space shuttle program. But there is still hope for it yet. A conference this month in spain hopes to advance the cause, dispite the fact that there is no public funding available in the US for this project. Some even claim that microwave power is essential for farther explanation. Accordong to the folks at Maxis, Microwave power should be available around 2020, depending on which version of SimCity you play."
Now maybe a private company can develop it for 2% of the cost and we'll have cheap, environmentally benign power.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
This concept was floating around when I was in High School before you could even buy a personal computer.
It would be interesing but also carries huge risk. You spend a fortune putting the infrastructure in place hoping to make it back over the next 20-30 years and 10 years down the line someone perfects cold fusion. We have cheap, unlimited power and you are dead in the water.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
"Death beams from space, that can microwave a city if terrorists got control of it". . .
What would happen, if the microwave beam moved slightly out of alignment? From such a high altitude, even a fraction of a degree could move the endpoint of the beam a few tens of metres...
Even if the reciever could detect this, it would be a few seconds before the satellite could recieve the command and turn off the beam...
And what if, something flies into the path of the beam, whether or not it is misaligned? Birds, planes, lower orbit satellites...
The question is not just what would happen, but also how to prevent it.
-- someone who hopes for safe, clean, efficient power, be it microwave or fission or fusion
I was under the impression that to send that much power down, you would need wither very thin, high energy beams which are dangerous, or a dish a kilometer across. No technology can lower the amount of power sent down to the earth while still dramatically increasing the power output. The beam can be wither wider or more dangerous.
How can tech savy nerds be so stubbornly simplistic when it comes to economics? The internet certainly wasn't a private venture for many years (not profitable). The technology behind all computers was developed and heavily subsidized by the government. There is next to know chance that any private company is going to develop this technology. Even if it were possible I think the powers that control expensive, polluting power would ever let it happen.
The article that Slashdot had the other day on the Navy's rail-gun. That seems pretty much out of video games if you ask me.
Inventions don't magically pop out of the air. The ideas are usually stewing for years. The game developers get their ideas from these ideas. They hear about these wacky concepts in college or whatever then toss them into their games. Because the real thing shows up later doesn't mean that the idea came from the game.
Considering the response being received for the X-Prize, it wouldn't be a bad idea for some wealthy guy to sponsor some Y-Prize for an extremely efficient, eco-friendly setup for generating power.
Am damn sure the current hydel, thermal, fission, solar, wind sources can be made use of in other better ways than the current ones
The Oil companies get their man in power and we cancel the space solar energy program.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Now maybe a private company can develop it for 2% of the cost and we'll have cheap, environmentally benign power.
Is that extra power really environmentally benign? IIRC, intercepting solar energy that would have missed the Earth means directing more energy towards our planet. This excess energy would contribute to increase the global temperature. Nobody know exactly by how many 1/10th of degrees, but it will definitely have some kind of impact.
Even if we only diverted solar energy from A to B (with A and B both on the surface), it would have some kind of effect (perhaps more winds from B towards A to compensate for the differential?).
Personally, I'd say: go for it! have a try! but some people and scientists would most likely object.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
It's called controversial discussion. I prefer people who go ape about everything to people who don't go ape about anything. All of the things you mentioned do have their drawbacks, and those drawbacks need to be pointed out, discussed and weighed against each other. They are in fact practising their democratic right and duty to actively support what they think is right - something that many people on Slashdot seem to think is below them. Cheering and bitching is the essence of a democratic society.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
We can get really high Isp's with electric propulsion, but a lot of the advantage is lost when the mass of the power source is figured in (solar cells or nuclear). With microwave power, it is easy to make a low-mass, very efficient power collector.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
"4) of enteresting (sp) note. Our planet is very far from the sun, and it provides probably ~ 2/3's the energy that runs our entire planet"
Unless I'm mistaken, aside from nuclear power and geothermal, virtually ALL terrestrial energy originates as solar. Even fossil fuels were biological at one point, and a AFAIK all biologically stored energy is dependant on photosynthesis (either directly, or throught consuming plant matter, or consuming the consumers of plant matter). Remember that you cannot get energy from nothing, conservation of energy is a key law in physics. Where are you getting this 2/3's figure from?
Well, power companies use really high voltage on long runs to reduce loss due to the inherent resistance in the lines. But if you are running these through all of the layers of the atmosphere, I would think that there would be some issues with electrical storms and such. Also there would be the maintenece costs of the cables themselves. I think the whole point for microwave power is that it would be the most effiecent means. Also, we have the technology now instead of waiting for them to figure out how to make a cable for the space elevator out of this miracle nano tube stuff.
-CowboyNick