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What the Japanese are planning to do....of the Moon


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Japanese are planning to use the Moon as a giant Solar plant station. It could work and if the Japs' calculations are right it might solve world's dependency on petrol. It's been thought of before by 'others' - I'm sure I read it elsewhere - but Japanese might actually get the support to become the 'stars' that will save the World ... well, maybe.... and cash in on a lot of profits for the next few hundred years. This will be a project of massive scale that will take up a lot of resources to take manpower up to the Moon and all the necessary equipment to install the Giant Solar Plant, so it will remain to be seen how it will go ahead if it will ever go ahead. One think is certain: something must be done soon and this idea should have been taken up 10 years ago, to say the least.

Left-click (once) here--->Japanese firm wants to transform the Moon into a giant solar power plant

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I really do love these grand ambitious plans. It's a lovely vision and a great model for a civilisation; a planet powered by a large sun-gathering satellite. Whether something like this is feasible is another question, but kudos to the Shimizu Corporation for being brave enough to propose it.

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I really do love these grand ambitious plans. It's a lovely vision and a great model for a civilisation; a planet powered by a large sun-gathering satellite. Whether something like this is feasible is another question, but kudos to the Shimizu Corporation for being brave enough to propose it.

The way things are going it might actually happen, in one way or the other, whether on the Moon or by satellites. Although a solar plant on the Moon it would be more stable.

Something needs to be done pretty soon about our dependency on oil.

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From what I have read, the big problem with these style schemes are the military implications of massive microwave beams aim-able at the planet, there was a treaty about high atmosphere and out of atmosphere nuclear testing which could cover this style of application.

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Wow...yeah the moon would look awesome with a 400km wide ring of solar panels around the equator! Let's destroy the moon, and then when we've finished that we can go and do the same to other planets too!

Let's not make use of the natural energy resources we have available on earth like Wind, Solar, Hydro, and Geo-Thermal, because that would be too easy. And besides, if we did do that, the Oil companies might lose out in the end, and that would be bad for shareholders. And we can't have that now can we!

Na, the moon sounds like a much better plan!

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... and I think that the Japs are pretty serious at exploiting solar power indifferent ways. They're going to show to the Western (oil dependent) World where the attention (i.e. research and money) should have been focused upon. Someone down the line is going to say 'why did we not do that?'

BBC News - Japan unfurls Ikaros solar sail in space

Dso's are difficult enough to see with the moon as it is. I'll be writing to the County Council of Japanshire to complain about the right porrution if they do that. lol :)

:D :D

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  • 4 weeks later...

hmm, sounds ambitious, but I can see a few problems. Just how much energy would be required to produce hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of tonnes of solar panels on the moon? And, although one side of the moon always faces the earth, it doesn't always face the same point on earth. So how can they transmit gigawatts or terrawatts of energy to earth in a continuous beam? They would need receivers all over the earth and a method to guide it focused on one receiver then switch it off to transfer it to the next receiver. Each of these receiver's would need power cables to the whole world. I can also imagine the realestate prices dropping somewhat anywhere near a terrawatt laser or microwave receiver! And you could only stick the receivers in 'trusted' countries like America ;):D, because as the world becomes reliant on this energy source it will be open to attacks and abuse.

How much energy will be lost when the microwaves or lasers pass through the earth's atmosphere? What effect will this energy, dispered in the earth's atmosphere, have on it? Vaporisation of water molecules? Intense heating?

Then there's the dangers, we worry about a few milliwatts of RF energy from mobile phones, how about terawatts of microwave energy!

Otherwise it seems like a good plan :)

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hmm, sounds ambitious, but I can see a few problems. Just how much energy would be required to produce hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of tonnes of solar panels on the moon? And, although one side of the moon always faces the earth, it doesn't always face the same point on earth. So how can they transmit gigawatts or terrawatts of energy to earth in a continuous beam? They would need receivers all over the earth and a method to guide it focused on one receiver then switch it off to transfer it to the next receiver. Each of these receiver's would need power cables to the whole world. I can also imagine the realestate prices dropping somewhat anywhere near a terrawatt laser or microwave receiver! And you could only stick the receivers in 'trusted' countries like America ;):D, because as the world becomes reliant on this energy source it will be open to attacks and abuse.

How much energy will be lost when the microwaves or lasers pass through the earth's atmosphere? What effect will this energy, dispered in the earth's atmosphere, have on it? Vaporisation of water molecules? Intense heating?

Then there's the dangers, we worry about a few milliwatts of RF energy from mobile phones, how about terawatts of microwave energy!

Otherwise it seems like a good plan :)

You stole the thoughts out of my mind. A microwave beam should have an effect on the Earth. And what about malfunctioning? What if the emission station misses the receiver? I'm guessing over cooked humans over a few miles radius... not to mention wildlife and so on.

Though the plan is nice, I sow another one that aimed to cover a large portion of the Sahara desert with solar panels that would be enough for 60 to 70% of the world energy needs. It would probably be a lot cheaper and safer. That combined with local energy plants (maybe from renewable resources) would solve the energy problem.

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....

Though the plan is nice, I sow another one that aimed to cover a large portion of the Sahara desert with solar panels that would be enough for 60 to 70% of the world energy needs. It would probably be a lot cheaper and safer. That combined with local energy plants (maybe from renewable resources) would solve the energy problem.

This plan is already under-way...

Left-click here --->Can Europe import solar power from Africa? | Environment | The Observer

...and here --->Solar Energy from the Sahara Could be Imported To Europe Within 5 Years | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

you got to get the contractors to moon some how ;)

... and all the necessary equipment. Yes, that would be quite a challenge. But I think that we are overpopulated and we do need to get outside our comfort zone that is planet Earth. The evolution of the Human Race will depend on developing our technology that will take us beyond the confines of Earth atmosphere.

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  • 2 months later...

Basically, if mankind wanted to solve the energy crisis, and weren't hampered by say the oil companies and other parties with vested interests in not solving the problems, there are a multitude of ways. We don't have to go to the moon and build a death star with a destructor beam to do it.

Like someone wrote, why not build a massive solar array, or a massive wind farm. Why not put money into exploiting geothermal energy? The whole earth is covered in water yet we cannot manage to harness tidal energy on a large scale.

Ever wonder if the world is run by politics or just large companies with revenues actually exceeding many of the world's small countries? Or maybe they are one and the same thing. Maybe that's why we can't exploit the "free" energy resources we have on hand....

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... and I think that the Japs are pretty serious at exploiting solar power indifferent ways. They're going to show to the Western (oil dependent) World where the attention (i.e. research and money) should have been focused upon. Someone down the line is going to say 'why did we not do that?'

BBC News - Japan unfurls Ikaros solar sail in space

:icon_salut::(

I'd rather they stopped slaughtering whales first, before they try doing something on this scale.. and then...drop even trying this as well..

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Ever wonder if the world is run by politics or just large companies with revenues actually exceeding many of the world's small countries? Or maybe they are one and the same thing. Maybe that's why we can't exploit the "free" energy resources we have on hand....

There comes a point here the new ideas turns to be more PROFIT-able that the old.

I wonder when the first "Solar War" as opposed to "Oil War" will be, as it is as guaranteed to happen like the sun rises in the east.

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There comes a point here the new ideas turns to be more PROFIT-able that the old.

I wonder when the first "Solar War" as opposed to "Oil War" will be, as it is as guaranteed to happen like the sun rises in the east.

Well that's the whole problem. We can only work on things that make a profit. Anything that might benefit people, but which can't somehow be monetized is just not done.

Then when you do buy something, instead of it having been built to last a lifetime, its built to the cheapest specification with a built-in life expectancy so the company you bought it from won't have their sales dry up once the market is saturated.

Ach...but I digress...I still think the moon thing is a remarkably daft idea...

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