In reply to OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson's message of Wed, 2 Mar 2011 16:18:10 -0600: Hi, [snip] >Robin sez: > >> ...sounds to me as though he is tapping into the Van Allen belt energy. >> This is the resonant transfer concept. > >Oh dear! If this takes off I bet one can wager their suntan lotion >that in another hundred years or so or we'll experience a Van Allen >shortage and increases in skin cancer. ...Of course, I'm just being >silly here. > >Nevertheless, I recall it has been brought up more than once here, of >obscure "technology" capable of tapping into the resonant energy of >the Van Allen belt. It would be interesting to know if there really is >something tangible to such claims.
It's ordinary physics. Charged particles circling around in a magnetic field must radiate cyclotron radiation. If you set up a resonant receiver, you should be able to pick it up. For the lower Van Allen belt, the height and frequency are approximately such that you could be about 1 wavelength from the source, so a resonant transfer would go as 1/r rather than 1/r^2. >If so, I would hope Mr. Van Allen >would be able to adequately replenish its "charge" via constant >bombardment of the sun's solar wind. Otherwise, I'd speculate we might >be in for a lot of mutations. The belts of charged particles themselves don't shield us from anything. That's the job of both the magnetic field and the atmosphere. The belts are just a byproduct if you will. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
