China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station - SpaceNews
spacenews.com
China plans to use a new super heavy-lift rocket currently under development to construct a massive space-based solar power station in geostationary orbit.

I'm fucking horny at this shit.

"The project would aim to establish a large collecting area receiving solar energy near constantly, without the atmosphere or seasonal changes affecting energy levels. Converted energy would be then transmitted to Earth via microwaves or lasers. The project would provide large-scale renewable energy and help tackle energy resource scarcity"

Finally some fucking good news in this hellworld.

Let's gooooo :mao-shining: :xi-shining:

  • comi [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    A) That’s not the same as continuous source, b) by necessity it would produce giant dot (eyeballing like 0.5 km), with obvious dodgy implications that it’s mistargeting can blind whole city

    • Awoo [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Fox News: "Is China building the GDI ION Cannon?"

      • comi [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Well unironically: it would be guided by transmission channel, security/cryptography fuck ups would be like super not good, and state actors (khm) would like it to fuck up. Idk, seems more aspirational idea than a useful one

              • comi [he/him]
                ·
                3 years ago

                It does below geo stationary orbit. As the wire will be stationary, only at geostationary height it will be weightless, near earth it will have full weight, all the rest will be inbetweeny weight. That’s the issue with cosmic lifts as well.

                  • comi [he/him]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    My general issue is they get 3x uptime (cause sun), but lose 50 rocket launches, and giant waste when photovoltaic cell deteriorate, on earth you can fix them at least, and who knows if it’s not cheaper to build 4x capacity on earth than to launch it

                    • panopticon [comrade/them]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      Do you think this still has value as a scientific experiment or is there nothing redeeming this project?

                      • comi [he/him]
                        ·
                        3 years ago

                        Long distance energy transfer is super neat, if we were to survive like next century, a lot of cool stuff to do with moon and space stations.

                        Idk, small scale I don’t see it as bad experiment. Seriously thinking of making GW in energy in space is very brave

                      • comi [he/him]
                        ·
                        3 years ago

                        They would decay faster in space, but on the other hand hubble still works :thonk: they lose like 50-70 percent of efficiency though

                          • comi [he/him]
                            ·
                            3 years ago

                            Cosmic particles and uv kills photocells faster, on earth they are shielded from both. Uv you likely can filter, particles are an issue though. But I’m mainly musing, not super sure :blob-no-thoughts: