Rectenna vs photovoltaic mass/power ratio?

Cool. I wonder whether it's been proposed before. It seems as
though everything I think of always has.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ian Woollard
wrote:
> On 9/29/05, dsw_s wrote:
> >
> > I was just wondering about the feasibility of using energy
collected
> > at one location in space to power equipment in another location,
via
> > the same kind of rectenna set-up proposed for getting energy to
earth
> > from space. It increases the complexity of the overall system,
but if
> > the rectenna has a lower mass to power ratio it might be
worthwhile
> > for systems going to high-delta-vee locations.
>
> It's probably quite feasible. The biggest downside is that if you
do it from
> any distance the rectenna would need to be pretty big. But the
power you can
> transfer per kilogram could be enormous (megawatts?), although
there are
> cooling issues that would need to be looked at quite carefully,
but a dump
> cooling scheme might work fine for short timescale operation.
>
> Probably a fantastic idea for VASIMR type drives I would have
thought.