[ExI] Lack of interest (solar power from the Moon)

[hkhenson]

At 01:34 PM 5/18/2008, you wrote:
>Regarding solar power from the Moon, I've given this link here before
>(the most recently in ApriL) and to the wta-talk list a couple of times
>too. There is a lot of good information and data and discussion and
>plans regarding exactly what Keith was talking about. (I believe that
>he's seen this already.) It came out of conversations with some of
>my former colleagues at the Planetary Science Institute, and I asked
>their permission to post what they said in the comment section of
>Clifford's PBS wiredscience blog:
>
>http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/blogs/2007/10/deep-impact-sputnik.html#comment-373

It's not physically impossible, it just a lot harder to do than power 
sats at GEO because the moon is so much further away.

The idea also suffers from the same problem as solar panels on earth, 
poor usage because a lot of dirt is between the panel and the sun 
much of the time.

And the moon is in the sky no more than the sun is, so you have a big 
energy storage problem unless you were using relay stations in GEO or 
somewhere to redirect the microwave beam.

I think even if you had an enormous use for power on the moon you 
would be better off to put the power sats in space and beam down the energy.

Keith