Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
 |
Comments on Solar Satellites Beam Back Energy
This is really a great idea, but I can only go back to 1941 for the earliest kind of reference. Anybody earlier? (Read
the complete story)
| "My reference for this isn't as old as your oldest one, but it's still a useful one. In Pournelle's book "A Step Further Out," (a collection of lectures and papers he gave in the late 70's and early 80's) he gave a lot of details of how this sort of thing would work, including some alternative uses for it, and claimed that it could be made with only slight modifications to off-the-shelf equipment of the time. (among the alternative uses was in a variant of the Laser Launch System which was effectively a pulse-jet engine for aircraft, so they'd only need fuel for takeoff and landing, not for the flight in-between)" (Ashley 10/23/2008 12:54:35 AM) |
| "Similar, but not quite the same, didn't NiKola Telsa broadcast power before 1900?" (Baja 10/23/2008 5:40:11 PM) |
| "Tesla tried, at least, and it worked at short range. Terribly inefficient, though. Fortunately most problems with wireless problem transmission have been solved by now.
Now my question. To get over 5 GW you need a humongous collecting surface. Concentrating light using lightweight mylar mirrors on relatively smaller PV cells can reduce weight, but it should still require assembling a large space structure with a huge combined weight. ¿How do you put that in orbit in the first place?" ( 10/24/2008 2:48:04 AM) |
| "Did Stapledon tackle this in Star Maker (1937)?" (jesse 10/28/2008 6:46:14 AM) |
| "Jesse - very good! Stapledon wrote about an idea that was very similar. The Symbiotics had "artificial planets for permanent habitation." They were covered with a transparent barrier to keep the atmosphere in. "Immediately beneath it hung the photosynthesis stations and the machinery for generating power from solar radiation." See the near space energy collection devices." (Bill Christensen 10/28/2008 8:17:33 AM) |
Get more information on Solar Satellites Beam Back Energy
Leave a comment:
Please send your comments to @technovelgy and I'll post them. Thanks!
More Articles
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
Don't Want To Wear A TIght Shiny Bodysuit?
'He looked a good bit like an elderly, fat beetle.'
Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
Satyress Centaur Robot Horror Reminds Everyone Of Something
'Fess was very dutiful'
When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You?
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
Beautiful Visualization of Dawn Spacecraft
'Then he became aware of a gentle pressure pushing him away from the ship.'
Biological War: A Scenario
'And now they wre busily transforming all their companions, and so on, and so on...'
Pole-Dancing Stripperbot Robot
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand!
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones
'We'll show them whose planet this is!'
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...'
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...'
Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'
