What is Digg?144 Comments
- grumpyrain, on 10/16/2008, -1/+33Someone has been playing too much Simcity
- barryiggins, on 10/16/2008, -1/+291.21 GIGAWATTS!!!
- Berkana, on 10/16/2008, -4/+30Satellite solar is an idiotic idea; launching anything into orbit automatically makes maintenance a thousand times more expensive, and impossible to do on a short-notice basis. On top of that, the additional cost of launching solar power plants into space could be used to build far more capacity down here on earth. Until we've exhausted every last square mile of the 280,000 square miles of the parched deserts of the American south west and built floating solar platforms near all our costal cities and covered all our warehouses with solar panels, and covered our sun-baked parking lots with car ports covered in solar panels, we shouldn't even be entertaining this idea. Launching things into space doesn't automatically make them better.
Just 2% of the deserts of the American south west could provide enough electricity to satisfy the entire US's energy consumption (from 2006; round that up to 3% for growth since then) using conventional technologies. There's no reason to go into orbit to do this. Satellite solar stations can't generate solar power at night anyhow; from a cost-benefit analysis perspective, there is no good reason to do this at all. - Trekhawk, on 10/16/2008, -0/+16Q: "How pie-in-the-sky is Ben Bova's space satellite scheme?"
A: So pie-in-the-sky that it's pie-in-outer space. - theviceroy, on 10/16/2008, -0/+14Reminds me of when the power plant like this in SimCity would mess up and a big energy pulse would hit a random block in my city.
- boardthis, on 10/17/2008, -1/+12great scott
what the hell is a gigawatt? - Lane, on 10/16/2008, -0/+10fun note to the company who buys into this, it also doubles as a weapon of mass destruction!
- omenmedia, on 10/17/2008, -1/+10It took this long for a gigawatt comment? I was expecting it to be the first post!
- inactive, on 10/17/2008, -0/+8Typos happen when you type at 88MPH.
- Bith8654, on 10/16/2008, -1/+9Can solar panels on rooftops completely power any household, regardless of their energy usage, 100% of the time without the need for any alternative source of energy? If it can (and I don't think it can't, especially if you live in areas that have long periods of crappy sunlight) can it do all of that while being the same price or cheaper than getting your power from a more conventional source?
The problem with the "elevator-to-the-moon" is, regardless of whether its plausible or not, we don't have the technology to make it. Solar-powered satellites don't fall into the same category. - alappat1, on 10/17/2008, -0/+8The fact that the moon is not in a geosynchronous orbit does make it a wee bit difficult
- gerrylazlo, on 10/16/2008, -0/+7They'd have to put them in the already crowded geosynch orbit or else it would be raking across the whole planet. Plus God forbid a plane passes through that beam.
- AlaskaLoneWolf, on 10/16/2008, -0/+6I going to get my tinfoil hat now...
- helenkupo, on 10/16/2008, -0/+6BZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!
- falser, on 10/17/2008, -2/+8He meant Jigawatt.
- izolutionz, on 10/16/2008, -1/+7$1 billion each may be a conservative estimate and the cost of launching them is not stated. Either way, I don't see why a corporation wouldn't be willing to put in the investment upfront if it promises to be profitable. NASA doesn't have to pay for this. I don't think a defense company should take up major contracts. They are terribly inefficient. Even a company like Google could fund it.
- alappat1, on 10/17/2008, -1/+7hmm why do i think of golden eye when reading about this?
- dullnation, on 10/17/2008, -0/+5I never heard of a moon elevator... a space elavator though...
- lovemorgul, on 10/16/2008, -1/+6Emergency electrical power could be "beamed" to lightweight solar panels.
- Target91, on 10/17/2008, -0/+5Bad thought: EA as a major energy provider.
- organicboy, on 10/16/2008, -3/+8I'd love this to be true, but it has VAPOURWARE written all over it and deserves to be filed next to the elevator-to-the-moon idea that gets trotted out every five years.
What's wrong with solar PV on rooftops? We've got most of the green tech fixes we need already; what we need is political and social change, not 'solar power satellites'. - rhinopig, on 10/17/2008, -0/+4Someone needs to play more Simcity:
"What happens if the satellite is misaligned?"
"Dispatch the fire department."
But assuming they fix that problem, sounds like an awesome idea. - Lunares, on 10/17/2008, -1/+5Actually, the maintenance cost of these kind of satellites is much lower than desert based PV panels due to wear and tear from weather.
The main advantage of SPS is that it is cheaper per kilowatt (ignoring launch cost), is active 24 hours a day (they do work at "night"), and you can also beam the power anywhere you want.
So what if 2% of the desert can provide power. You still have to get that power out of the desert. That is where the problem lies. - PhilliesBlunt, on 10/17/2008, -0/+4hmm why do I think of Marijuana when reading about this?
- zbeast, on 10/16/2008, -0/+4wow and bitch and whine about cell phones and cell phone radiation now your going to be sending down from
space megawatts of microwave energy. birds and even air craft would burst into flames if they happen to stray
into the beam... - lead2thehead, on 10/17/2008, -0/+4I'm pretty sure that the sun already does that.
- lordjeebus, on 10/17/2008, -1/+5But the only power source capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning!
- jjesusfreak01, on 10/17/2008, -1/+5hmm why do I think of sim city when reading about this?
- Yondelldude, on 10/17/2008, -0/+4I was waiting for that
- t0x2c, on 10/17/2008, -0/+33.141592653589793238462 in the sky.
- boomerang42, on 10/17/2008, -0/+3Answer: No.
- bornhardcore, on 10/17/2008, -2/+5Ion Cannon charging
- pegothejerk, on 10/16/2008, -1/+4just don't keep a LOT of popcorn in your home if you are a professor of a magnet school. REMEMBER that. It will be very important later on.
- dullnation, on 10/17/2008, -0/+3Ok, so it'll snap every few hours. Just get a surplus of UHU!!
- MittyMantrem, on 10/17/2008, -0/+3Thank you SO MUCH for commenting with this, because I would have been very sad if someone hadn't done it before me.
- Tiak, on 10/17/2008, -0/+3Elevator to the moon is almost never proposed. Elevator to low earth orbit (with an anchor in geosynchronous orbit) is the vaporware in question, so the logistics of the moon are irrelevent.
- HonestAbe, on 10/17/2008, -0/+3Yes. Solar panels in space beaming energy to earth in the form of a microwaves. Just like this. RTFA.
- xptoast, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2bruce86...you ever fry ants before? Yea...about that tan...
- t0x2c, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2It actually might be useful if the microwave beam of energy accidentally became misaligned and shot across the ground, burning everything in it's path.
- tehphoberer, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2"ignoring launch cost"
It costs $10,000 of fuel to get 1 pound of payload into orbit. Solar panels in space will never be cost efficient without nuclear rockets or a space elevator. - connieLingus, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2hey i cooked a turkey in 103ms with it, so its not all bad.
- ATLien74, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2I'm not sure that would be very efficient.
- DeFex, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2perfect for zapping unruly citizens with.
but if they do make it wouldnt it be awesome if it was in the shape of a pie. - t0x2c, on 10/17/2008, -1/+3in english gi is a 'soft' g
- Crimsonsoul343, on 10/17/2008, -1/+3more like gigawatts of cancer.
- RoboDonut, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2@bruce86: Read the article. It's not a solar beam. It's a microwave beam. Just like Sim City.
- UselessTrivia, on 10/17/2008, -1/+3I agree that launching stuff into space doesn't automatically make it better...but it does automatically make it more awesome.
- MadThrasher, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2Actually it is harmless.
- weeFred, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2Shouldn't you be thinking about Die Another Day? That was the one with the big space solar mirror thing, Goldeneye was a satellite which used EMP to fry electrical chips. Goldeneye was a far better film though.
- hypher, on 10/17/2008, -0/+2Space based solar power is pretty cool, I've thought it'd be an awesome idea since I was a kid. One of the biggest questions I've always had though: What happens if a plane (or a bird) flies through the rather large (over 1 km) microwave beam transmitting the power. Seems to me like it'd cook just about anything that got in its path, transmitting multiple gigawatts of power. Just a thought.
If we finally got around to that space elevator, we could just send the power down it in cables. At least you can _see_ the elevator. The elevator would also make it a hell of a lot easier to get the satellites into orbit. -
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