From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Solar Power Safety
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:01:38 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	I am confident that advances in technology will make orbital solar
power more feasible economically.  In the meantime, we shouldn't foreclose
an interesting option because of other concerns that can be addressed fairly
easily.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Lynch [mailto:rw_lynch at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 1:37 PM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Solar Power Safety

--- "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
> 	Keith Lynch points out that solar power satellites
> possess many
> safety advantages over nuclear reactors.  In
> addition, there are a number of
> obvious safety measures that can be taken to reduce
> concerns that a
> orbit-to-ground power transmission beam will turn
> into a Death Star type
> death ray.
> 	First, the transmitter satellite should track the
> accuracy of its
> target lock on the receiving antenna via celestial
> navigation and via
> comparison with ground station signals.  If it loses
> target lock by a small
> amount, it immediately corrects itself.  If it loses
> target lock by a larger
> amount, it shuts down the beam until target lock is
> definitely
> reestablished.  It uses multiple tracking techniques
> to insure a high degree
> of accuracy and therefore safety.  The ground
> station signals would be
> transmitted from rings of sensors surrounding the
> receiving antenna.  In all
> cases, the transmitter and ground stations would
> report any problems via
> multiple channels to human monitors who would be
> able to stop beam
> transmission by system commands, or, if all else
> fails, by a big knife
> switch.
> 	Second, the receiving antenna may be placed on
> waste ground where
> there is nothing under the antenna but bare rock and
> maybe ice.  A number of
> isolated valleys in the high Rocky Mountains meet
> this criterion.  There
> would still be a problem for birds flying into the
> beam, but birds are
> relatively rare in the high Rockies.
> 	Third, power transmission would be a logical job
> for an orbital
> tower.  Mount the solar power generators on the
> tower and all transmission
> is by landline.  Even if the generators are in a
> separate orbit,
> transmitting to the tower for landline relay to
> Earth would increase the
> safety factor over direct transmission to Earth.
>

Safety issues aside for the moment, they still make no
economic sense whatsoever.

=====
Rich Lynch
==========
MIMOSA web site: http://jophan.org/mimosa/
1960s Fan History Site: http://jophan.org/1960s/
http://www.livejournal.com/~rwl

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