tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3396247289271411557.post5282881498101867308..comments2014-08-10T15:07:54.689-07:00Comments on Interesting news: Space Solar Power Crowd Bets on ObamaHanibalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07834989077515072242noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3396247289271411557.post-26956094300176995632009-03-15T20:24:00.000-07:002009-03-15T20:24:00.000-07:00"NASA would not provide $55 million they had asked..."NASA would not provide $55 million they had asked for to conduct a solar power beaming <BR/><BR/>experiment . . ."<BR/><BR/>In truth, there is no point wasting money on power beaming. Communcation satellites have <BR/><BR/>been beaming microwaves to earth for decades 24/7. There are few things microwave <BR/><BR/>engineers understand better than forming microwave beams.<BR/><BR/>"scalable to a magnitude that can enhance national security interests," Power satellites can scale <BR/><BR/>to the point the completely displace fossil fuels. That takes perhaps 30 TW by mid century <BR/><BR/>which determines a construction scale of 500 GW per year or more. Less than twice this <BR/><BR/>amount of power, 50 TW, over 12 years would take a 1000 billion tons (100 ppm) out of the <BR/><BR/>air and convert it into synthetic oil. We could pump it back into empty oil fields where we <BR/><BR/>know it can be stored for millions of years.<BR/><BR/>When you think about a project of this magnatude, there is a kludge of using a suborbital <BR/><BR/>rocket and a big laser to push 100 tons per hour directly to GEO at a cost of not more than <BR/><BR/>$100 per kg. That's low enough to make penny a kWh electricity and carbon neutral synthetic <BR/><BR/>fuel for a dollar a gallon.<BR/><BR/>Keith HensonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com