Pew pew lasers!!! Fried chicken falling from the sky!!! The future is here... today!!!
JAXA (Japan's space agency) is testing a space-based solar power system! This technology has been discussed for decades, and is actually somewhat common in the world of sci-fi. Basically, the, system would use orbiting solar panels to collect energy, which it would then beam to a terrestrial base station on the surface using microwaves. Yes, the microwave beam would be dangerous, but you would just set up a no-fly zone around it and pray that birds will learn to steer clear.
The advantage of this system is that you can set up massive solar arrays in space without losing any planet-side real estate. 100s of square miles, if you wanted! And you can also set these up adjacent to the planet, so you're catching solar energy that wouldn't have otherwise hit the Earth. You could even set them up close to the sun to get more intense radiation. So the energy capture possibilities are tremendous. As are the technological hurdles. But still, it's pretty damned cool.
Also, a quick shout-out to Pink Tentacle, which is a really engaging blog about random Japan-y topics. I recommend reading it. = )
JAXA (Japan's space agency) is testing a space-based solar power system! This technology has been discussed for decades, and is actually somewhat common in the world of sci-fi. Basically, the, system would use orbiting solar panels to collect energy, which it would then beam to a terrestrial base station on the surface using microwaves. Yes, the microwave beam would be dangerous, but you would just set up a no-fly zone around it and pray that birds will learn to steer clear.
The advantage of this system is that you can set up massive solar arrays in space without losing any planet-side real estate. 100s of square miles, if you wanted! And you can also set these up adjacent to the planet, so you're catching solar energy that wouldn't have otherwise hit the Earth. You could even set them up close to the sun to get more intense radiation. So the energy capture possibilities are tremendous. As are the technological hurdles. But still, it's pretty damned cool.
Also, a quick shout-out to Pink Tentacle, which is a really engaging blog about random Japan-y topics. I recommend reading it. = )
No comments:
Post a Comment