-----Original Message----- From: Stephen A. Lawrence !!!!! Hey, that sounds like it has real potential (no pun intended)! .... Remember the tethered satellite fiasco? ....
[JB:] Yes, that is what I had in mind Now, a free-flying kite (or, perhaps more practically, a balloon) would be moving at a few hundred MPH, while the Shuttle is moving at a few thousand MPH, so the generator effect is going to be much smaller [JB:] Not so sure that it would smaller - in fact it could be more robust of a generator effect, not less, since the friction of the atmosphere is so much greater at lower altitude, and that tribology can be manipulated from wing to wing in a vertical array - it all depends on creating or maintaining a large charge bias with a steerable structure. The amperage would be a function of the surface area of the airfoils and that could run up to a square km! Here is one of many articles on the charge layers which exist BELOW the ionosphere http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983ebro.conf..375M My basic idea would not work with a balloon at all, as all indications are that it must be steered or maneuvered fast and accurately. Either a strong kite or a "ladder mill" of very light long carbon fiber wings might be best. Remember the wings on the Daedalus ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_powered_flight Imagine 100 of these wings, each extended by an order of magnitude in length and arranged to pull carbon cables in a loop:i.e. arranged as a "ladder mill": Check out the last illustration on this page, but transpose it from ground operation to the stratosphere, with the bottom being a modified glider (the structure closest to the ground being a much larger glider plane which enclosed a giant crank wheel) and with the entire arrangement, which could be several km long - being maneuvered up or down so that there is maximum charge differential between the top wing and the bottom wing, and so that there is current flow in addition to the torque of the mill. Each wing must be individually controlled (via an Xbox ;-) http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Wind:Ladder_Mills That's kinda where the general pie-in-the-sky idea is headed -- up -- as in the cost is going through the roof ... way up there into the stratosphere... ... but at a lesser rate than the cost of OPEC gasoline... Jones
