Europe Turns Back to Coal, Raising Climate Fears

Ishmael · 04-24-08, 03:59 PM

Has anybody read any of this guy's work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill

He was a pioneer in the research and feasibility of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite

This is a great article explaining the advantages and disadvantages of a fully-deployed SPS system. Considering the thousands of square miles of desert land in the Southwest for siting rectennas, combined with the increase in available solar energy outside the atmosphere and the advances in thin-film semiconductor processing in the last 40 years, an orbital PV or CPV system might be even more feasible today. This would also facilitate the permanent human presence in space and lead to the construction of orbital space colonies as envisioned by O'Neill here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_Cylinder

04-24-08, 03:59 PM	#12
Ishmael Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Morro Bay, Ca. Posts: 659 Downloads: 79 Uploads: 0	Has anybody read any of this guy's work? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill He was a pioneer in the research and feasibility of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite This is a great article explaining the advantages and disadvantages of a fully-deployed SPS system. Considering the thousands of square miles of desert land in the Southwest for siting rectennas, combined with the increase in available solar energy outside the atmosphere and the advances in thin-film semiconductor processing in the last 40 years, an orbital PV or CPV system might be even more feasible today. This would also facilitate the permanent human presence in space and lead to the construction of orbital space colonies as envisioned by O'Neill here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_Cylinder