scientificamerican.com — The Japanese government is prepared to spend some 2 trillion yen on a one-gigawatt orbiting solar power station—and this week Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies have signed on to boost the effort.
Sep 6, 2009 View in Crawl 4
twilightmadnessSep 7, 2009
but i'll hire it to u ;)
gaymathmanSep 7, 2009
Solar is prohibitively expensive on the ground; having solar panels in space will be even more expensive.
Closed AccountSep 8, 2009
The Apollo Theater?
Closed AccountSep 8, 2009
you are not clever
Closed AccountSep 8, 2009
In the early 70's I worked for a well known company that put a good deal of money into researching you being full of s**t.
nygenxerSep 8, 2009
It does seem expensive but initial costs represent R&D which have the highest numbers. Costs to produce and to launch will come down both in absolute terms and relative terms. Keep in mind too that with each passing day we simply have fewer options. Someday the lights are going to go out unless we exploit other energy resources. I think it's interesting to talk of costs in light of the Iraq quagmire - we could've sent 200+ of these into orbit for what we spent to invade Iraq. That's 200+ solar stations providing limitless clean renewable power 24/7/365 and much-needed jobs and (oddly enough) reducing our need for a military presence in the Middle East in the first place. It's all a question of national priorities and what kind of legacy we want to leave our children. Since we are spending THEIR money, why not invest in national infrastructure they'll find useful instead of just handing the cash over to Halliburton and Blackwater?BTW there really aren't any "maintenance nightmares" for the same reasons that the Mars probes don't have any - too far away! These things will either work or they won't.
Closed AccountSep 8, 2009
Mejogid - thank you for the well documented dismissal of my claim. I am somewhat surprised because I had been told (by someone who seemed knowledgeable) that Japan was somewhat phobic about anything "nuclear". It seemed rather against my general impression of Japan as being intelligent scientific types rather than the superstitious cowards implied by the claimed position regarding nuclear power. So I am most pleased to discover that they do not, in fact, have this overwhelming paranoia I was led to believe they had.I also appreciate you taking a stern stand against my somewhat irresponsible statement. I will try harder.
anaxaSep 9, 2009
This reminds me of a great Genesis game: Buck Rogers. Turn-based RPG. Awesome.Anyway, The Sun King (bad guy) had all these Mariposas (orbiting solar arrays) and controlled the majority of power for the solar system.I'm going to go find that game for my emulator/phone -- do the same.tl;dr: Japan is like the bad guy from a 90s video game., pretty much.