Well. They have a study. I hope they can get their SHIFT key fixed for the next project so it doesn’t spasm on them like it did for CASSiDi and CASSIOPeiA.*
Get back to me when they have hardware ready to fly.
*I recommend not drinking high fructose corn syrup beverages near keyboards.
This is exactly the sort of excessively self-congratulatory press release I would have reflexively round-filed in my days as a trade publication editor as something requiring a complete re-write to be suitable for publication even if the “product” seemed genuinely newsworthy.
The latter condition cannot be reasonably judged from the text. The same, unfortunately, is true of the company website. The powersat design isn’t the usual football-field-in-orbit thing, even allowing for the reflectors. But there is no explanation of the helical center section’s geometry. There are multiple references to this seemingly combined solar array/phased array RF power emitter construct as having 10s of thousands of “layers” – the definition of “layer” being anything but obvious in this context. The whole thing gave me epic Princess Bride flashbacks – “You keep using this word…”
As a skeptic of orbiting powersats for Earthly use, my strong inclination is to file this in the “British Reach Exceeds British Grasp” folder along with HOTOL and Skylon. That decision was reinforced upon encountering a reference to SABRE engine technology in the FAQ entry dealing with potential means of launch.
Well. They have a study. I hope they can get their SHIFT key fixed for the next project so it doesn’t spasm on them like it did for CASSiDi and CASSIOPeiA.*
Get back to me when they have hardware ready to fly.
*I recommend not drinking high fructose corn syrup beverages near keyboards.
This is exactly the sort of excessively self-congratulatory press release I would have reflexively round-filed in my days as a trade publication editor as something requiring a complete re-write to be suitable for publication even if the “product” seemed genuinely newsworthy.
The latter condition cannot be reasonably judged from the text. The same, unfortunately, is true of the company website. The powersat design isn’t the usual football-field-in-orbit thing, even allowing for the reflectors. But there is no explanation of the helical center section’s geometry. There are multiple references to this seemingly combined solar array/phased array RF power emitter construct as having 10s of thousands of “layers” – the definition of “layer” being anything but obvious in this context. The whole thing gave me epic Princess Bride flashbacks – “You keep using this word…”
As a skeptic of orbiting powersats for Earthly use, my strong inclination is to file this in the “British Reach Exceeds British Grasp” folder along with HOTOL and Skylon. That decision was reinforced upon encountering a reference to SABRE engine technology in the FAQ entry dealing with potential means of launch.