From: quibbler247@yahoo.com   
      
   In article <4bd6a206.0402182346.6ac9975b@posting.google.com>,   
   bugman85226@yahoo.com says...   
   > I just finished reading Zubrin's "Entering Space", and was somewhat   
   > disturbed by his economic analysis of space solar power.  Not that I   
   > found it off the mark for what he analyzed - but that it seemed to   
   > ignore what seems like an obvious alternative.  Too obvious - there   
   > must be something I'm missing here.   
   >   
   > Can someone explain why, given Zubrin's arguments about launch costs   
   > for the commonly conceived solar to microwave power sat, it isn't far   
   > more effective to simply put large mirrors up at GEO to light up solar   
   > power farms on Earth at night?  That should about double the power   
   > output of a solar power farm, without greatly increasing operating   
   > costs.  The mirrors could also be used during early and late daylight   
   > hours, to augment lighting of the solar farm - eliminating most of the   
   > value of expensive sun-tracking hardware.   
      
   What you're proposing is certainly interesting.  However, I suspect that,   
   for a variety of reasons you'd run into trouble trying to implement it.   
   First of all, GEO space is expensive to get to and is prime real-estate.   
   Secondly there are lots of reasons why people would not be too keen on   
   losing the ability to have dark nights in a local region.  Plants need a   
   dark cycle to grow for one thing.  Also, one is likely to severely raise   
   temperatures in a region if there were extended periods of daylight.   
      
   On a more practical level, many of these space reflectors are quite   
   flimsy and will eventually burn up or need to be maintained on a regular   
   basis.  Until we have more plain old solar electric collectors on earth   
   it won't make a lot of sense to put the mirrors up.  But FWIW, I think   
   that space mirrors of some sort or other could have a lot of promise.   
      
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         Quibbler (quibbler247atyahoo.com)   
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