My comment from JHAT of this date with subject of space based solar power stations
I pose the question: Should we (humans) collect solar power and beam it down to Earth by microwave or laser?
The answer, and I quote, is “No. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Are you serious? Who in their right mind would attempt to sling that much hardware into space and waste all that much energy to accomplish something that would be thousands of times easier.
That something is simply putting a square mile or more sheet of metallized plastic, rolled up, into orbit, and unfurl it in space to become a mirror. Leave all the solar panels here on Earth where the light from the mirror will be directed. This would allow the solar array to be illuminated in the direct sunlight by day and by the mirror at night.
This mirror could be made mostly of metallized plastic, with structural members made of tubes of metallized plastic that once in orbit are inflated with dry air to become stiff enough to support nearly no weight. The structure would be ultra light and a huge amount could be deployed from a single launch.
If you really think about it, it would be absurd to do it any other way. By the time a kilowatt of sunlight hits the solar panel in the sky, gets converted to microwaves, reaches Earth, and gets converted to electricity, there would be less than a hundred watts left, probably closer to 50 watts.
And there is no worry about frying anything with microwaves. Just freaking out nocturnal animals like owls. 😱😂
Thanks, Dave. Am I the only one who has proposed this system? There must be some other “best scientific minds” that have rationally thought about this!