China plans to build ‘Three Gorges dam in space’ to harness solar power
China plans to build ‘Three Gorges dam in space’ to harness solar power
www.scmp.com
China plans to build ‘Three Gorges dam in space’ to harness solar power
9 comments
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How much energy is that in terms of popcorn?
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Dyson sector?
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I wish there was some more detail in the article. My two initial impressions are 'how does the power get to Earth?' and 'Mr. Burns blocks out the sun'. (Obviously it won't be that big)
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The idea isn't new, the power is beamed to earth using microwaves. A good overview can be found here https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/SOLARIS/FAQ_Frequently_Asked_Questions_on_Space-Based_Solar_Power
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How do they plan to transfer the energy to Earth? Lasers?
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Microwaves most likely. Both NASA and ESA have done feasibility studies on similar ideas.
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Right, so it's been some time since I've seriously studied physics, but I'm fairly sure that microwave radiation is soaked readily by water/water vapour, which is why we have microwave ovens. So it would seem a lot of this projected energy would just be wasted on heating the atmosphere between the station and ground receiver. Do you happen to have links to the studies, because surely they had to address the issue?
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9 comments