[geeks] [rescue] Computerfests (was: first real server hardware) -OT

[Dan Duncan]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " I always picture that or a tracking error looking something like
> " the beam that took out the White House in Independence Day.
>
> would 1GW be enough power?

Good point.  We should increase it.  It's the only way to be sure.

> if the beam is roughly as intense as sunlight - that is, ~1kw/m^2 - a
> 1GW beam would cover 1km^2.  iirc, the sps proposals had -lower-
> intensities and -larger rectennas.
> you won't cook much with that.

Why would you want to maintain a 1km^2 collection area instead of
something smaller?  Eventually you're going to have to focus it
into a smaller dot to do anything with it besides grow crops.  I
suspect your losses to atmospheric resistance are minimized by
using a smaller beam.  You might as well overlap the focus
point of several mirrors to get a brighter spot.  If you're using
solar panels, you can make them to handle light brighter than sunlight.

> p.s. if you're already beaming microwaves, why boil water with it?

If we're distilling ethanol, it would be fine.  If we want electricity,
we could convert microwaves directly, but we'd probably have to get the
microwaves from solar panels which aren't that efficient YET.  If we
want electricity from focused sunlight, our best bet is still probably
to boil water until solar panels become more efficient.  We still boil
water in coal or nuclear power plants.

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# I drank what?  -Socrates