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go_comatose_for_me t1_j1bpid1 wrote

I always thought this was a bad idea because I pictured microwaves blasting down and frying any bird that happened to fly through the space, or the easy conversion to military use, frying targets like something out of Real Genius, but reading around a bit they say the energy isn't much more than that of the sun on a sunny day.

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bookers555 t1_j1btlmr wrote

>I always thought this was a bad idea because I pictured microwaves blasting down and frying any bird that happened to fly through

It's not like that's going to stop tech development. Hell, birds can fly into plane or helicopter engines and it doesn't just kill the bird, it can easily disable the aircraft as well, and it's not like that stopped us from using them. Might sound cold, but that's how things are.

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mekatzer t1_j1cfj3x wrote

Look at you two, thinking birds are real… /s

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FenitoFussolini69 t1_j1cu1rl wrote

They don't even know that Bird is an acronym for Basic Information-Recording Drone, smh.

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Makhnos_Tachanka t1_j1c2w6i wrote

Yeah it's not a damn microwave oven. They're just not going to be that powerful on the ground. You need big ass antennas covering a lot of area to collect the power. Even if you wanted to fry birds with it, it would be a significant engineering challenge achieving that level of beam collimation.

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ackermann t1_j1cuy9q wrote

> need big ass antennas covering a lot of area to collect the power

Though presumably smaller than the area of solar panels you’d need on the ground, to collect the same amount of power from the sun directly. Otherwise, it would largely defeat the purpose, of course.

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danielravennest t1_j1eay69 wrote

Solar energy in space is 36% stronger than on the ground, and available 24 hours a day rather than 3-8 for locations on the ground. So a panel in space generates a lot more power, and on a predictable schedule.

The trick is to get that power down to a transmission line on Earth at a reasonable cost. The military is interested in this, because they have to bring power to field bases in random locations. Beams are steerable. The current method involves tanker trucks fueling generators at absurdly high cost.

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orrk256 t1_j1dc2rq wrote

No, it is significantly easier and cheaper to put up a bunch of wires somewhere in comparison to solar panels, needs less matinace and isn't as susceptible to "day/night"

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ausnee t1_j1btuwb wrote

Honestly free cooked meals falling from the sky sounds pretty great

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representativeofman t1_j1c03qw wrote

You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this.

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needlenozened t1_j1cicp8 wrote

Isn't that already how much energy would be coming down there, on a sunny day? So where's the extra energy meeting transmitted?

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go_comatose_for_me t1_j1cimtx wrote

It's that much energy, but the weather isn't supposed to have much of an effect on the output, nor the time of day.

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quadmasta t1_j1bvmdl wrote

Ever see a bird fly in front of a long range microwave transmission antenna when it starts transmitting? It does what you'd pictured

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danielravennest t1_j1ec3bd wrote

Most bird deaths from microwave towers are from running into guy wires, not the beams.

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youknowithadtobedone t1_j1cuzce wrote

I mean that makes a lot of sense right? It literally is the energy of the sun on a sunny day (it's always sunny in space) minus a few conversion losses

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danielravennest t1_j1e9w24 wrote

It is hard to focus radio waves tightly from space. You need a big transmitter antenna, which only makes sense for high power levels.

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quettil t1_j1f01cj wrote

> but reading around a bit they say the energy isn't much more than that of the sun on a sunny day.

Then you'd need a receiver as big as a normal solar farm. So why bother with orbital solar?

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