Beamed Power

> But for electric lines, there's a very clear object you'd better not
> grab hold of. For beams from orbit, isn't there health concerns for
> airplanes flying in the path of the beam? Would we just have to
> issue a "steer clear" signal to all aircraft in the area somehow?

You treat it like a military firing range or a military base. People
don't fly through that either.

There's plenty of other areas that are already marked like that on
maps. You wouldn't exactly put this downwind of an airport anyway.

Besides, you can surround it with towers, with lights on top.
In bad weather, there's GPS. If GPS fails, they have air
traffic control.

> And just what would
> happen if an aircraft flew into one of these energy beams?

Not a lot.

The power people get upset because the power dips.

Aeroplanes are good Faraday shields i.e a perfect shield
against microwaves. Basically, it bounces off and dissipates.
Its highly unlikely to do any major damage to the plane.

> Presumably the smaller the rectenna, the stronger the beam, the
> nastier the consequences of getting caught in the middle.

Yes, but even at 1km it's down below the power of sunlight. 10km
for a 1 gigawatt link is total overkill. 3km is below the power limits
for cell phones. And that's a 1 gigawatt link; which is a biggy.

> It's an interesting tradeoff, and we could propose both systems. One
> rectenna which is very large but very safe, another which is much
> cheaper but requires much more care in its use.
>
> --Justin

civilization?"