Beamed Power

>>The problems are that it often loses in comparison with other
>>technologies, in most situations e.g. wires, carrying fuel around,
>>batteries
>>
> Do you have any numbers to support that assertion ?

I was refering to the non SPS uses of this tech. I have a feeling
you are misreading my email slightly.

Anyway, check out how much it costs to move a fuel gallons of
GAS around. It's down in the cents region. Now work out the costs
for building a microwave power transmitter/receiver.

> Land based transmission lines are more expensive over longer distances,
> GEO microwave relays are not.

Right now, for just about any scenario you can imagine, there are
cheaper ways of DISTRIBUTING power than building a GEO relay. It
doesn't matter how it scales if it's sufficiently expensive in the
first place.

> How about transmission of power between islands, perhaps in an
> archipeligo.
>
> As a thought experiment, how about relaying power from New Zealand to
> Fiji ?

Sure, go for it, if you can work out how to do it, specifically
the economics. It's certainly not impossible.

>>Also, there are safety, and plenty of other practical issues. For
> Could you be more specific ?

For most normal sitations, the antennas are 10s or hundred of meters
across. The GEO sat has a huge antenna too, but the costs are reduced
by launching from the moon. For non SPS use the power scales inversely
to area; and you can get into very legitimate concerns. For SPS use, the
antennas have to be so large that the power density is very much lower,
and can be made much safer than cell phones.

> Cheers.
>
> CR.

civilization?"