Solar power sats without colonies...

Dan Wylie-Sears wrote:

> Note that groundbound solar can also be thermal, either convective
> or steam-turbine. Either one takes care of the nighttime issue by
> just having some thermal mass to store the heat. Convective thermal
> solar probably works better at night, because of the lower
> temperature at the outflow.

SSPS can be solar thermal. Thin film metal mirror focused on a Brayton
or Stirling Cycle engine. (eg: http://www.lgarde.com/programs/powant.html)

As for launching dozens of Falcons a day, why not launch one or two Sea
Dragon type vehicles. 500+ tonnes per launch to LEO. falcon 5 would only
put 4 tonnes in the same orbit.

If you don't want to send a lesser amount to GEO, then develop a tug to
take the cargo to higher orbit using O2 or similar as the fuel and put a
few tonnes of fuel in each launch for the tug, at 500+ tonnes for
payload a couple of tonnes of fuel for the tug isn't going to cause many
problems.

Someone mentioned Solar Flares. I wonder which is more robust in that
situation Solar Panels, or Solar Thermal. I am guessing that with Solar
thermal there would be less electronic components, so they might be
easier to provide shielding for.

Brett