Re: Solar powered lasers in space
- From: BradGuth <bradguth@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:05:04 -0000
On Sep 11, 7:06 pm, Willie.Moo...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
In 1996 I wrote in these newsgroups about an idea I had worked out
about using thin film reflectors inflated on orbit to concentrate
sunlight onto a solar pumped laser. That laser beam would be beamed
to receivers on the ground which would convert the power to
electricity and thermal energy for industrial use. Overall efficiency
would be 40%
I was roundly attacked by all - and so, it was with great interest
that I read the following on yahoo news service in 2007;
http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1521
I am fully justified in my earlier statements - and all those who
mercilessly attacked me have been proved dead wrong in their negative
assessments of my ideas.
Willie Moo's SBLs are clearly a spendy alternative of obtaining clean
energy, but at least technically doable as is. His terrestrial
alternatives are actually a whole lot more doable, as is.
The total worth of raw solar energy influx potential that's
continually impacting Earth and that of our sooty/polluted atmosphere
is worth 7.2e17 w.h or 720,000 TW.h, and by most any standard it's
rather clean energy, other than populated with loads of nasty UV b/c,
X-rays and even for having a few of its own halo CME gamma rays that
are not exactly human DNA friendly.
Down to Earth; here's my none-WorldFactBook revised terrestrial energy
budget;
64,000 TW / direct global solar photon influx that gets through to the
surface
16,000 TW / currents, winds, tides, rivers and moon (this conservative
amount could just as easily become worth 32,000 TW)
8,000 TW / photosynthesis potential (total PV @12.5% eff, not
including Stirling options, which without much effort could become
worthy of 16,000 TW)
4,000 TW / potential of sustained geothermal energy draw w/o
foreseeable planet harm could easily be pushed to 8,000 TW.
- the all-inclusive human demand -
24+ TW / humans + our industry (extracted from fossil, renewable
and nuclear)
100 TW / human+industry 2100AD (extracted from fossil, renewable
and nuclear)
On behalf of off-world resources clean and renewable energy, there's a
great deal of nearby space-based energy that's clearly in addition to
those Willie Moo SBLs that are solar pumped for all they're worth:
In addition there's a dosage of IR moonshine, as well as an ongoing
force of orbit gravity that's always existing as our Earth/moon
orbital related process, whereas if such a force were converted
into available surface joules of energy, and then into watt hour
energy = 7.2e23 w.h (7.2e11 TW)
If merely 0.0001% of that orbital gravity/tidal energy were getting
converted into those matters of having been contributing into our
surface and internal fluid friction induced heating = 7,200 TW or
roughly speaking 1% of the solar energy influx.
In other words, if it were not for the energy contributed by our
physically dark and somewhat salty old moon, Earth would become
extensively iced over because, our sun alone is simply not as bright
and toasty enough for sharing sufficient energy all by itself,
especially if mother Earth were any more reflective, as it had to have
been in those multiple ice-age past times that were simply of much
worse off cycles before Earth obtained that moon.
According to others in their planetology field of expertise, Earth is
continually losing roughly 40 TW.h away from our geothermal core, and
otherwise humans have been converting fossil, bio/renewable and
yellowcake derived nuclear energy into contributing roughly 24 TW.h,
that's obviously directly contributing to our AGW before such energy
eventually leaves Earth, for a grand energy exit budget tally of 64
TW.h and growing. Of course along with more atmospheric suspended h2o
and subsequently nighttime cloud coverage is exactly why less of that
energy is leaving Earth.
Life in a sealed biosphere such as Earth, whereas only the bad stuff
remains within our environment for us frail humans and all other more
important life to deal with, whereas the squeaky clean energy that
wouldn't hurt a fly just keeps radiating away. Therefore, we humans
are in fact heating up our surface environment, but having more so
been contributing our energy byproducts of soot along with those pesky
toxic elements of CO2 and NOx like there's no tomorrow. Of what we
badly need is lots more energy that's squeaky clean and the most end-
user efficient usage without the all-inclusive end result that's
currently generating soot plus those invisible but toxic byproducts of
CO2 and NOx, of which this has been doable if extracting the bulk of
that new and improved energy from the sun and our moon, as much as
possible avoiding those various other fossil or biofuel alternatives
that depend upon their having to consume such horrific volumes of our
mostly N2 and sooty water saturated atmosphere.
To argue against this logic is to show your true colors, as for being
in favor of greed, arrogance and insurmountable bigotry that's of more
faith-based ideology than not. Whereas to contribute on behalf of
constructively resolving such issues in the most affordable manner is
being humanly intelligent, along with having good awareness and
remorse for those unfortunate mistakes made in the past, and otherwise
for keeping an honest focus towards taking that new and improved grip
upon the best of our talents and resources as driven in the proper
direction, instead of our being continually faith-based sequestered
back into them dark ages where only the rich get richer and the poor
that can't possibly get any poorer simply get dead (and apparently
especially dead if you're a Muslim sitting on an oily rock).
Excluding all of those extremely interesting but unavoidably spendy
off-world energy alternatives that are never as good for the all-
inclusive bottom line as hyped by their promoters, we have upon or
within Earth more than what's necessary in order to safely manage our
clean energy future well past the 2100AD mark, that is if we can
manage to avoid WWIII, WWIV and WWV in order to end all such silly
wars because we've used up every last drop, m3 and/or tonne of fossil
and yellowcake reserves in the faith-based process of exterminating
one another.
If we are to go off-world for supplementing our future energy, as such
it'll have to be accomplished in a very big way, and eventually it'll
most likely have to include the highly benefical aspects of solar
shade and moderating the gravity tidal energy influx via relocation of
our moon's orbit, as being sent all the way out to the halo station-
keeping realm of Earth's L1, and that's in addition to those nifty
Willie Moo GSO SBLs, as there will also have to be the fully tethered
LSE-CM/ISS along with it's tethered dipole element that'll reach such
monster SBLs if need be to within 2r of Earth, and also offering the
one and only proper access to/from our moon that'll become the only
humanly safe and affordably doable alternative, and that's not even to
mention the absolutely terrific space based CM/ISS habitat of that
depot/gateway potential, that's afforded by having such a nearby zero
gravity outpost at our disposal.
- Brad Guth -
.
- References:
- Solar powered lasers in space
- From: Willie . Mookie
- Solar powered lasers in space
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