--- In spacesettlers 10484, Joe Strout wrote:
> LEDs are not currently the most efficient form of lighting
> (the best is sulfur discharge lamps, at 55%

Wikipedia says sulfur discharge lamps are 15% efficient -- the same
as linear fluorescent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighting_efficiency%23Examples_2

Are you referring to prototype lamps?

> mirrors and windows aren't 100% efficient either; ...
> Fiber optics would be even worse. The efficiency is still
> probably much higher than a solar-electric light system,
> of course.

There is also the solar-access problem in planetary orbit -- if
everyone is grabbing light, one has to pay to access it -- and one
can potentially block the light of others. Orbital real-estate is
scarce and valuable, and solar gathering takes up room. It is also
clunky. Nuclear power can help avoid those problems.

From: hitssquad

> There is also the solar-access problem in planetary orbit -- if
> everyone is grabbing light, one has to pay to access it -- and one
> can potentially block the light of others. Orbital real-estate is
> scarce and valuable, and solar gathering takes up room. It is also
> clunky. Nuclear power can help avoid those problems.
You're kidding, right? One of the most impressive facts about the High Frontier concept is how much room there is out there for solar interception. A space-based civilization might intercept tens of millions of times as much solar energy as our entire planet. We don't have to worry much about the kind of difficulties you seem concerned with until our civilization is bordering on Dyson Swarm status.

Regards,

Mike Combs

On Oct 23, 2008, at 7:33 AM, hitssquad wrote:

> Wikipedia says sulfur discharge lamps are 15% efficient -- the same
> as linear fluorescent.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighting_efficiency%23Examples_2
>
> Are you referring to prototype lamps?
>

Sorry, I researched this a few years ago and didn't write down my
reference for that figure (but it wasn't Wikipedia!).

> There is also the solar-access problem in planetary orbit -- if
> everyone is grabbing light, one has to pay to access it -- and one
> can potentially block the light of others. Orbital real-estate is
> scarce and valuable, and solar gathering takes up room.
>

You have funny ideas.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout
joe@...

"I place economy among the first and most important republican
virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.
To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with
perpetual debt." -- Thomas Jefferson