solar power sats

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dan Wylie-Sears

> > I always worked on the presumption that when lunar mining bases
> are
> > established that they would be powered by solar power satallites
> in
> > L1 and L2.
>
> I would have guessed that the first lunar mining bases will
> be at one of the poles, and powered by solar on-site rather
> than via satellite.

If we're talking about a mining base that would use a mass-driver to
launch lunar material up to the L-2 point, then it couldn't be at the
poles. It would have to be on the nearside, and not terribly far from
the equator.

The Space Settlement studies certainly seemed to feel that at least at
the beginning of the program we could get by with a solar-powered
mass-driver operating with a duty cycle of 50% (2 weeks on/2 weeks off).
At a later point where double the throughput is desired (and can be
accommodated by the other parts of the enterprise), one might need to do
a study to figure out which would be more cost effective: building a
second mass-driver, or building a L-1 SPS and lunar surface rectenna so
as to double the output of the existing driver.

Regards,

Mike Combs