I have been researching the processing of regolith for pv grade silicon. There are going to be some challenges. I think extracting aluminium from the regolith where Apollo 16 landed and make trough reflectors horizontal or vertical to generate steam for power plants may be an economical option. I am thinking terms of lunar surface installations. It may be possible to beam to earth from the moon's surface. An equatorial grid that could supply continuosly would foot the bill pretty well and the subject of solar wind and atmospheric drag would be a mute point.
Regards
Don

Converting regolith to Aluminum troughs would seem to be easier than PV production. But unless placed at the poles, half the month will be in darkness. Also how do you plan to beam the energy to Earth.
Brooks

> But unless placed at the poles, half the month will be in darkness.
> Also how do you plan to beam the energy to Earth.

So it might be in places other then the poles, seems quite wasteful. Microwaves from the moon to Earth, I'm wondering how, a series of relay stations in orbit? My understanding is you need to be steady with the ground for the microwave transmission and reception to work. GEO, L1 from the moon, etc. but from the moon to the Earth you are eventually going to have a moving target, wonder how they solved that.
Brooks

From: brooksn

What is phased array steering and a pilot beam? From a glance online it looks like maybe the antenna can change what it's transmitting based on the distance to the rectenna at the time, is that right? It seems the phased array steering and pilot beam are used for the GEO SBSP, but they would be able to handle the widely varying distances during lunar/Earth rotation?
Brooks

Yes, the GEO SPS is what I know phased array steering from. You seem to have a concern about distance, but this is primarily about fine steering. Gross steering would be pointing the antenna emitter at the direction of the Earth, and then phased array beam steering would provide the fine steering needed to hit the rectenna. I don't think anything in this process is particularly sensitive to distance (other than that the beam is a bit wider at greater distances).

I really have not done that much research on power sats. My main
interest has been settling and creating infrastructure on the moon. I
just recall reading an article from NSS or somewhere that sugested that
beaming could be done, maybe laser or maser.
Don

I probably didn't explain very well what I mean. SPBS is in GSO at an essentially constant place above the surface and fine steering is done to keep it at an optimum position for the rectenna.

I recommend researching SPS, because if it were pursued seriously (i.e. at a level to make a significant dent in global needs) then the most economical source of raw materials would be the moon. I dont know if SPS would guarantee lunar settlement, but it would most certainly lead to lunar infrastructure emplacement and economic development, which I would say is a necessary precondition.

I think the best thing I could recommend is to research the name David Criswell. He's the one who's done the most work on power beaming from the moon, and insists it could be done economically.

--- In spacesettlers, "Combs, Mike" wrote: