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Planned Constuction of Orbiting Microwave Power Station
Fith writes "A small news item tells of a research project to build robots that will assemble and repair a gigantic orbiting solar collector. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the section. Basically, power collected will be beamed back to earth using 'safe levels' of microwave energy. " This is a proposal that's been floating around for quite some time-vast LEO or HEO solar panel arrays, beaming the power down to earth. For those of you who played, Simcity2000, this was one of the power options as well. NASA hopes to part of this operational by 2015.
Just think of the benefits that could be realized with microwave irradiation.
We could maintain a comfortable minimum temperature in some of the world's coldest areas. Imagine, Fargo in the middle of winter, at a balmy 75 degF. Weather forecasters could actually guarantee tomorrow's highs. Swimming pools and car engines would always be warm, as would be the toilet seats across the nation.
If we can tighten the beam enough, and develop super-precise satellite navigation systems, we could use one of these puppies for snow removal on the nation's highways. We could even melt a few hundred thousand acres of the Sahara for use as the world's biggest mirror for the world's biggest telescope..
Now everyone, from L.A. to Bangor Maine can have a nice tan. Just go out during the designated irradiation period (day or night) and stare up into the sky. Oh, and all the stylish tinfoil hats we'd all have to wear. And clothes would stay 'fresh-from-the-dryer' warm, all day.
Remember how grandma would cool off freshly baked pies by setting them on the window sill? Well, now we'll be able to thaw the Thanksgiving turkey that way..
Just think, no more mosquitoes! At 6:30 each night, get off the patio. Then ZAP! 30 seconds later, not a 'skeeter in a 500 mile radius. Just be sure to bring in the pets.
We could aim the thing at the Antarctic, and make the world's biggest ice sculpture... Seriously though, maybe carve off a big iceberg and haul it to where there's a drought? Well, maybe not.
On the down side, leaving a dog in a closed car on a hot summer day would be kinder than leaving him out on the lawn. Hot dogs anyone?
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
There was an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this week. Here is an online version:
7 12solar1.asp
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/19990
It's much longer and more informative than the one on the CMU site...
That's somewhat interesting, but I've never seen the case study myself, and wonder what kind of control group they used -- maybe people who use cellular phones are simply more intelligent and imaginative and use phones because of that. My interpretation of what I was told (by an MD) was that the cellular radiation stimulates activity in regions of the brain where without the cell phones there would be none.
However, the nice conclusion exists, given this premise, that microwave radiation that misses the target and haphazardly strikes people will benefit the overall IQ level of the country. Maybe we should target some high schools and examine the effects.
Note: It has never been conclusively shown that cellular radiation increases the chances of brain tumours. I worked in a nuclear power plant -- the fear of radiation is greatly exaggerated, I assure you. Live in the average Ukranian basement for 8 months and you'll exceed legal Canadian doses of radiation (legal, not lethal :P).
Radiation becomes a problem when it is in the form is acute doses -- high exposures in a short period of time. Just for the sake of a story: a fellow came into the plant (the Nuclear Power Plant) a few years back and set off the alarms on the way in. It was surprising to discover that the source of the radiation that set off the alarms was in his belly -- a result of him eating Caribou meat over the weekend when he went hunting. The Caribou were eating lichen off rocks, and rocks are radioactive, and hence the Caribou meat was releasing enough radioactivity to set off the alarms at our wonderful Nuclear Power Plant.