Hawaiian Solar System
Concerns and best wishes to friends in the Houston - Clear Lake area.
Mauna Kea's summit seen from my plane. The Islands often seem like little worlds, each with its own unique character. The Hawaiian solar system is central in the vast Space of the Pacific. Polynesian navigators settled the Pacific island by island in a process that took centuries. Future humans could settle the Galaxy in the same way.
Friday the national Space Society and John C. Mankins (expert on Space Solar Power) announced the first long-distance transmission of solar energy. The project transmitted power between antennas on two Hawaiian islands 148 km apart. This is similiar to the distance from low Earth orbit, though far from the 36,000 km geosynchronous orbit. Earlier this year we heard Colonel "Coyote" Smith announce a project to transmit power from orbit. The dream of limitless clean energy from Space may finally be moving forward.
Orbital Hub hosts the new Carnival of Space!
Labels: hawaii, solar power
posted by L. Riofrio at 6:26 AM
3 Comments:
The proof-of-concept transmission of energy via radio waves was done over forty years ago. Anyone who knew about Gerard K O'Neill would know all about this. I first read his books and papers when I was in elementary school. Incidentally, he did the first colliding beam physics experiment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_O'Neill
Googling I find that Jerry Pournelle mentions this as well. Jerry has wrote a lot on technology development and his long shadow covers much of what we do today.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/2008/Q3/mail536.html
Good point, I hear that the humans-going-to-the-moon experiment was done 40 years ago too. It's about time our generation saw these things.
You were visiting the 'aina ?
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