[ExI] The L5 Society ( was: EP and Peak oil.)

[John K Clark]

Me:
>>Fused Quartz, it can do  5 x 10^7 volts/mil.

"Keith Henson" <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>

> Can you cite the source for this remarkable number?

I too thought the number was remarkable, it was larger than even I thought
it would be so I decided I wouldn't use it unless I could find 3 independent
references to it, I could. See:

http://www.proscitech.com/cataloguex/get_notes.asp?fusedquartz    or

http://www.mtixtl.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=591  or

http://www.qtubing.com/index/tech_data

By the way, I found one reference that said Muscovite Mica could do even
better but I couldn't find any conformation so I can't swear to it.

Me:
>> I don't know how much a power satellite would weigh

You:
>Easy to look up.  I am using 2kg/kW which works out to 10,000
>metric tons for 5 GW.

That figure is indeed very easy to look up but it is much less easy to have
any confidence in it. Even with mundane things like civilian airliners  the
early design estimates of the weight of the finished product usually proves
to be far too optimistic, and far more people worked on the jet than worked
on the design of a power satellite. I don't think anyone really knows what
the damn thing would weigh except to say it would be very very heavy.

  John K Clark