And by that I mean power generation in space and beaming it down to Earth.

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/The-Pentagon-Successfully-Tests-Solar-Panel-In-Space.html

Pretty cool, I must say.

Unfortunately, the cost to do this on a large, practical scale would be astronomical, no pun intended.

Dave

24 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Pretty cool, I must say.

Unfortunately, the cost to do this on a large, practical scale would be astronomical, no pun intended.

Dave

 

One would think so. But let's hope Elon and others manage to get the cost of putting stuff in orbit down to reasonable levels. 

If that happens, could be promising perhaps. Doesn't have to be a mega sized single installation, could be several smaller arrays when they can be afforded.

Nice! I wonder what the receiver stations might look like? Something with a pretty tall mast to keep the microwaves from nuking people, not to mention the accuracy of targeting the beam??  Note - I don't know the actual power or frequencies envisaged and if they would be harmful, but given that a domestic microwave can cook you... 

Just for the media - Solar Powered Death Rays here we come! 

In 1963 my late father bid on a contract-loan from the FAA to USAID. The task included - among other things - to design and have installed a precision approach radar (PAR) facility for Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran. Dad had a dozen Iranian Engineers all of whom hinted that he please use their 'title" of Engineer rather than Mister, i.e. "Engineer Ayman." They were a proud bunch!

In any case, during the planning of the new facility, dad insisted that a strong fence would be required to prevent sheep and their shepherds from pasturing and/or crossing downrange of the antenna. When his team of "Engineers" ask why the fencing was needed, he suggested that it might be taken amiss should the new PAR cook an entire flock of sheep and their shepherd(s)... 

18 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Nice! I wonder what the receiver stations might look like?

 

Hmm... not sure. It would be microwave frequencies, so I'm thinking smaller than you think. People would be safe as the intensities would be lower than that required to harm humans. I gather its a common misconception that the energies would be high. 

Something like 50 to 60% of the energy we get from solar panels is lost to the atmosphere, so great gains there. Trouble is, there are losses when we convert to microwaves and beam back down to Earth. 

Many nations are exploring this concept though, so who knows for the future. 

What we really need is a rapidly rotating superconductor anti-gravity machine, like the one Podkletnov was supposed to have invented. I may have to dive back into my shed and invent one. Then we could get this stuff up in orbit for peanuts. And I'd be  a billionaire due to my invention.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Podkletnov

 

 

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Gravity shielding[edit]

According to the account Podkletnov gave to Wired reporter Charles Platt in a 1996 phone interview, during a 1992 experiment with a rotating superconducting disc:

"Someone in the laboratory was smoking a pipe, and the pipe smoke rose in a column above the superconducting disc. So we placed a ball-shaped magnet above the disc, attached to a balance. The balance behaved strangely. We substituted a nonmagnetic material, silicon, and still the balance was very strange. We found that any object above the disc lost some of its weight, and we found that if we rotated the disc, the effect was increased."^[1]

 

 

 

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Attempted verification[edit]

In a 1997 telephone interview with Charles Platt, Podkletnov insisted that his gravity-shielding work was reproduced by researchers at universities in Toronto and Sheffield, but none have come forward to acknowledge this. The Sheffield work is known to have only been intended as partial replication, aimed at observing any unusual effects which might be present, since the team involved lacked the necessary facilities to construct a large enough disc and the ability to duplicate the means by which the original disc was rotated. Podkletnov counters that the researchers in question have kept quiet "lest they be criticized by the mainstream scientific community".^[1] Podkletnov is reported to have visited the Sheffield team in 2000 and advised them on the conditions necessary to achieve his effect, conditions that they never achieved.^[7]

In a BBC news item, it was alleged that researchers at Boeing were funding a project called GRASP (Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion) which would attempt to construct a gravity shielding device based on rotating superconductors,^[8] but a subsequent Popular Mechanics news item stated that Boeing had denied funding GRASP with company money, although Boeing acknowledged that it could not comment on "black projects".^[9] It is alleged that the GRASP proposal was presented to Boeing and Boeing chose not to fund it.^[10]

In July 2002, an article by Nick Cook in Jane's Defence Weekly reported about Boeing's internal project GRASP — Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion to evaluate the validity of Podkletnov's claims. The briefing obtained by Jane's says "If gravity modification is real, it will alter the entire aerospace business." The briefing allegedly says that Boeing, as well as BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin tried to approach Podkletnov directly and that "Podkletnov is strongly anti-military and will only provide assistance if the research is carried out in the ‘white world’ of open development."^[11]