Solar power sent to Earth by microwave conversion from satellites.

Captain Ron

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
11,007
Reaction score
13,436
Points
3,898
Been reading on the BBC News science page about the plans to put an orbiting solar farm up as a 24/7 power supply. Technology exists already and has been tested and cargo to orbit prices are dropping significantly to the point of making such an endeavour viable. Safety is addressed from beaming gigawatts of power down as microwaves by making the beam cover a wide area collector. Apparently the point strength of the intended beam would be safe enough for birds to fly through and people to walk around in without getting cooked. My only concern is do we trust the power station builders to not also build in a focus capability at the request of their governments. Potentially a fairly significant orbiting weapon if several gigawatts of microwave is focussed on a tight area elsewhere than the receiving ground collector one imagines. Then imagine having several of them in orbit and all of them focussed on the same target away from their ground collectors.
 
Been reading on the BBC News science page about the plans to put an orbiting solar farm up as a 24/7 power supply. Technology exists already and has been tested and cargo to orbit prices are dropping significantly to the point of making such an endeavour viable. Safety is addressed from beaming gigawatts of power down as microwaves by making the beam cover a wide area collector. Apparently the point strength of the intended beam would be safe enough for birds to fly through and people to walk around in without getting cooked. My only concern is do we trust the power station builders to not also build in a focus capability at the request of their governments. Potentially a fairly significant orbiting weapon if several gigawatts of microwave is focussed on a tight area elsewhere than the receiving ground collector one imagines. Then imagine having several of them in orbit and all of them focussed on the same target away from their ground collectors.
It's an interesting idea. I heard about it this week too.

I'm not sure it would be a very good weapon though. Surely it would be fairly easy to shield strategic locations, or even reflect back the microwaves?

I always wonder why Reagan spent so much in space lazors when anything could be protected from them by just having a mirrored surface (maybe I'm missing something?)
 
It's an interesting idea. I heard about it this week too.

I'm not sure it would be a very good weapon though. Surely it would be fairly easy to shield strategic locations, or even reflect back the microwaves?

I always wonder why Reagan spent so much in space lazors when anything could be protected from them by just having a mirrored surface (maybe I'm missing something?)
Directed energy is often not in the visible spectrum. Put a piece of mirrored glass in a microwave to see the effect. Also, a directed microwave beam of high intensity is extremely unpleasant to organic matter.
 
Directed energy is often not in the visible spectrum. Put a piece of mirrored glass in a microwave to see the effect. Also, a directed microwave beam of high intensity is extremely unpleasant to organic matter.
Not if behind an earthed mesh like on your microwave oven's door!
 
Not if behind an earthed mesh like on your microwave oven's door!
Of course but would you stand in front of an operating microwave oven with the door safety window removed? Now up that to several gigawatts of focussed microwave energy beaming down on a troop emplacement or a political leader.
 
Of course but would you stand in front of an operating microwave oven with the door safety window removed? Now up that to several gigawatts of focussed microwave energy beaming down on a troop emplacement or a political leader.
I still think the counter measures would be considerably easier to build than the weapon!
 
I always wonder why Reagan spent so much in space lazors when anything could be protected from them by just having a mirrored surface (maybe I'm missing something?)

The Reagan administration spent most of the SDI money on basic research into many different types of systems including railguns and ground-based missiles as well as different types of lasers. They rapidly concluded that space-based lasers wouldn't be feasible for decades.
 
I still think the counter measures would be considerably easier to build than the weapon!
If building a weapon was the sole intent I would agree but it you are building a system for wirelessly directing gigawatts of power from space to ground for civilian power purposes then it surely will require attitude and directional control and focus to maintain the beam over a wide area at a given location. At that point you already have your weapon. You just adjust the aim point and tighten the focus.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom