Pay me $2 Bil and I will build you something that produces photons and takes up much less than 4000 acres
You give these guys way too much credit On Monday, May 30, 2016, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote: > Speaking of a cross between Fuku and towering inferno, with a few thousand > light sabers thrown-in … think about using all those mirrors as a renewable > propellant … > > > > That’s right, propellant. You don’t really think that electricity was the > only goal here, do you? Maybe there was something else going on behind the > scenes and you-know-who will arrive to save the day. Can you say “space-x”. > He is not far away. > > > > Solar pumped lasers are already on the horizon, and from there the next > step would be to coat the mirror array with an optical material to > consolidate the broad emission spectrum and then to focus the reflected > superradiant light onto a point overhead in space where a vehicle, > specially designed to use this light as a PLT (photonic laser thruster) is > waiting for it… and there you have it… tenfold reduction in the cost of > putting tonnage into low orbit. > > > > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4593010/ > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_laser_thruster > > > > There are losses, but who cares when the advantage of having a few hundred > megawatts of focused photons available for days and days on end (for > accelerating objects to low earth orbit cheaply) is the bottom line. Once > into low orbit, mylar solar mirrors deploy which can use the same converter > to get to high orbit. > > > > It is a minor problem is to control the relative speed to maintain the > craft is roughly overhead relative position to the mirrors until the first > acceleration stage is complete. But all of this is doable… on paper. It > seem no more complicated than landing a rocket in reverse, on a barge. > > > > Look for Elon to put in a bid for Ivanpah… but not necessarily for the > electrical power… J > > > > *From:* ChemE Stewart > > > > You guys are ignoring all of the mechanical and structural challenges of > pointing 350,000, 30 foot mirrors at the ground using worm gears and > stepper motors that have just lost power due to a storm and/or lightning > strike. No motor power, no movement. The fuel source (the sun) keeps > moving up and then down towards the west, so the focal point(s) of all of > that incident power is constantly changing. > > > > It is not like a typical boiler where the flame safety system can cut the > source of fuel. It is more like a cross between fukushima and the towering > inferno :) > > > > >
