Re: Bill Moyers Reports: Earth on Edge

[Andrew Crystall]

On 1 Jul 2001, at 7:50, Adam C. Lipscomb wrote:

> What's the viability of using microwave transmission to beam
> orbitally-collected solar power back to Earth?  I know that's been
> proposed in the past, but I haven't heard anything about it lately.

The problem is, to get a deacent-sized solar power array up there, 
it would cost a LOT. And we can't make it up there YET. Besides, 
it makes much more sense to make the solar pannels in micro-G, 
since they can be formed to be a LOT more efficient.

The problem with aiming a microwave beam at Earth is what 
happens if the beam shifts, basically...

I still hold out nuclear power as a good portion of the answer.

Andy
Dawn Falcon