[ExI] Further ranting on power sat

[Keith Henson]

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Lesson-learnt-from-40-years-1501557.S.109960984?view=&gid=1501557&type=member&item=109960984&report.success=v9F1yUF_EhbSLiA9P0gBV2o8WgZ0Nf3cccvEI9_MquN0af_PSq6EOsM7ctJRx9bFcLpJdjpMmCtNNFD-LWRYvl5iqj0eBFWForTC9t_Mo9N0ajQqncu0Gz6DmkENNFWcPoW09y6DqfGUhJfccqrJfs6_WfhUNGQP1LpR9us_o2mhafO11rsaOOusWCFgaCp11B8RPFxbN0a

Jorgen Anders seems to think solar energy is one of the few solutions.
 I agree.  The problem is that solar energy, due to clouds and the
Earth being in the way much of the time, is even more expensive than
nuclear energy.

There may be a way to get the cost down, but it involves taking the
solar energy collectors into geosynchronous orbit.  Straightforward
analysis states that the cost to lift parts to GEO has to get down to
$100/kg for power to be delivered at 2 cent a kWh.  (That's low enough
to make synthetic transport fuel for ~$1 per gallon, desalt and pump
water 1000 km inland, recycle everything, etc.)

Laser thermal propulsion at 500,000 tons per year will get the cost
down that far where the problems of chemical propulsion make it
unlikely that $100/kg can be done at any traffic rate.

It's a very large project, and perhaps not the best way to solve the
energy/carbon problem, but there seems to be at least one way to get
out of the problems we have with a limited planet.

The fact that this can be considered at all is a "Black Swan" event of
electronics intruding into space transportation, gigawatt propulsion
lasers having roots in the tiny laser diodes used in CD players.

The previous iteration of the concept is here
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7898