Re: Solar Shell


scottlowtherAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Pat Flannery wrote:
Williamknowsbest wrote:
VISION



He's going to do it! He's going to terraform the Sun!

And it will all be funded by the sales of multicolored golf balls
delivered to your home at the top of a 10-mile-high office building by
silent laser-powered flying lunchboxes.

I sold the golf-ball company already, that funded some of the research
I'm doing in solar energy. That led to research in PV cells that had
low parastic losses. That led to MEMs research. Which MIGHT lead to
flying lunchboxes. A 10 mile high office building? Never proposed any
buildings office or residential. Sorry.

I am aware that Frank Lloyd Wright proposed a 1 mile high tower, 'The
Illiinois'

http://www.delmars.com/wright/flw7a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illinois

Which did have its own nuclear powered elevators and a nuclear station
in the basement to drive the elevators, AND had helicopter landing pads
at the upper levels. This was a period when GE was selling nuclear
power plants directly to industry, and installing tiny nukes in Little
America to promote the product. It was also a period when people spoke
about a helicopter in every garage. haha..

I love the concept of outer surface elevators proposed for this
building. This was carried a step further conceptually in the 2002 Tom
Cruise movie MINORITY REPORT where maglev vehicles not only went down
roads but also up the sides of buildings;

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0181689/CN261_12.jpg.html

Their high speeds and ability to move into garages built in the
building as shown, would make taller buildings possible.

There is a problem when there are very tall buildings - using today's
elevator technology. That is, at some point, the entire first floor
becomes elevators. Structuring the elevator system as in the WTC is
one approach. Multi-story elevators as proposed for the Illinois and
as done in Tapei 101 is another. High speed vertical travel with the
abilty to move laterally and remove 'vehicles' out of the column also
help. Combining approaches to create a vertical as well as horizontal
roadway on the outside of the building, whether for multi-tier vertical
buses or individual vehicles may appear to be the ultimate solution,
and this is proposed in Star Trek lifts. Robert Heinlein proposed yet
another solution in his Future History series. "C'mon you apes, you
wanna live forever!" - iirc Heinlein's conceptual invention is that of
a 'drop tube' - an elevator shaft that has some sort of anti-gravity
coil at the base, set to lift masses in the up shaft and drop masses in
down shaft. Clarke also had a similar device in space stations - but
this was IN zero gravity and didn't require the 'coil' - Here you
merely walk up to the shaft and step in without a vehicle, and rise or
fall slowly to the floor you want. The shaft becomes in essence a
vertical walkway. I noted once that a spiral escalator would achieve
much the same effect of getting rid of elevators, especially if a
double helix were formed in columns outside the corners of a building
with broad stairs. Mitsubishi has built spiral escalators since the
1980s.

I did propose a tethered balloon - an aerostat - to old thin film
concentrators above clouds, and more recently conjugate optical
reformers that would redirect laser or maser energy, most significantly
from IR solar pumped lasers in space. Aerostats would have to operate
at about 12,000 m - to fly above most clouds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerostat

In my concept the aerostats are tethered to the ground with optical
fibers or light pipes, or wires, but propulsive systems maintain
position with the aid of GPS, so tethers are not really structural. In
the concentrator design the concentrator is aimed using the same
propulsive system. The aerostat is filled with hydrogen for bouyancy.
A self-contained hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell system provides propulsive
power for station keeping as in the eternal airplane concept.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html

Except here, bouyancy, not propulsive power provides lift. This
reduces total power requirements. And for a solar power collector,
that is important!

Another concept is a totally free-flying design that beams energy
through the clouds using microwaves or intense lasers that cut through
clouds to recievers immediately below the aerostat

Hmm.. I did talk briefly about Bob forward's idea of a space fountain
and orbital ring. These are big structures. Don't know about office
buildings though. They could be used to build big structures, but
that's not my idea, its someone elses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain

I did work with Kieth Loftstrom on the idea of using a variation of
concept to transmit and store power generated by large dispersed arrays
of solar collectors. Kinetic energy in the moving pellet stream not
only can transfer momentum, it can also transfer energy. This system
can also be used to build very long span bridges as well as very large
towers. So, its ideally suited for nations like Indonesia which has
17,000 islands to connect and power. Others have proposed magnetically
coupling to the moving mass of metal that transmits momentum and energy
in these designs to move maglev vehicles like that described in the
movie Minority Report, though most designs today envision train or bus
like vehicles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation.

Maglev can occur without moving masses as in the space fountain, and
forms a class of vehicle that involves a powered roadway. Maglev
tracks can also transmit power conventionally through wires. So, there
is a natural separation between short haul tracks and power
transmission and long haul tracks and power transmission. Long haul
tracks and power using kinetic masses - and are capable of spanning
huge distances. Short haul tracks and power use wiring and
conventional magnetics supported by conventional structures. The long
haul system has the advantage of storing significant amounts of energy.


For space fountain like structures one wonders why they would limit
themselves to 10 miles? The closest Java comes to Sumatra is further
than that so that's a pretty good sized bridge. Then Java to Bali is
another jump. The span from Java to Borneo is where there is a notable
jump. Panga to Belitung to Kalimantan I think is best. These spans
are so long that one might consider building linear cities along them -
similar to Asimov's Caves of Steel, or Heinlein's strip cities, in The
Roads Must Roll.

.

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