This would appear to be a first in terms of tech demos.
6 thoughts on “Space-Based Solar Power”
First, but when will we reach a dozen?
I wonder if we will have the 60’s era ‘skyscrapers in the sky’ where the powersats are humongous structures in geostationary orbits …or an intelligent swarm of much smaller satellites in lower orbits redirecting power as they orbit? SpaceX could start working on the latter in only a few years.
I bet the skyscrapers in the sky will be sending power to the supertankers in the sky. I don’t know where depots the size of TI-class tankers will orbit, but it’d be pretty cool to look up and see one going by overhead, if in LEO.
Equator LEO. Cannons from tropical ocean feeding it water, probably happy to buy electrical if as expensive as $1 per kw hour, though the “TI-class tankers” could also get there own solar energy, but pay it for beamed
if can get it while in the nightside- and if getting in nightside, they might as also get some during the dayside.
One thing missing from that article is the word “watt”. As in, how much wattage was actually received. How long until they have a demo in which they get enough power to turn on a small light bulb or charge someone’s phone from it? Until then, I’m putting this in the same category of “really soon now” as fusion has been in for the last century.
A skyscraper in GEO that is always twenty years in the future does seem like a depressing thought. Only started after the first Lunar City and an O’Neill cylinder are completed I suppose.
First, but when will we reach a dozen?
I wonder if we will have the 60’s era ‘skyscrapers in the sky’ where the powersats are humongous structures in geostationary orbits …or an intelligent swarm of much smaller satellites in lower orbits redirecting power as they orbit? SpaceX could start working on the latter in only a few years.
I bet the skyscrapers in the sky will be sending power to the supertankers in the sky. I don’t know where depots the size of TI-class tankers will orbit, but it’d be pretty cool to look up and see one going by overhead, if in LEO.
Equator LEO. Cannons from tropical ocean feeding it water, probably happy to buy electrical if as expensive as $1 per kw hour, though the “TI-class tankers” could also get there own solar energy, but pay it for beamed
if can get it while in the nightside- and if getting in nightside, they might as also get some during the dayside.
One thing missing from that article is the word “watt”. As in, how much wattage was actually received. How long until they have a demo in which they get enough power to turn on a small light bulb or charge someone’s phone from it? Until then, I’m putting this in the same category of “really soon now” as fusion has been in for the last century.
A skyscraper in GEO that is always twenty years in the future does seem like a depressing thought. Only started after the first Lunar City and an O’Neill cylinder are completed I suppose.