From: mikecombs@nospam.com_chg_nospam_2_ti.retro.com   
      
   "Gene P."  wrote in message   
   news:Pine.LNX.4.44.0503151553570.17279-100000@uurth.com...   
   >   
   > I've got 2 different answers to this non-issue:   
      
   NASA didn't consider this a non-issue when they made the only detailed   
   studies of space industrialization using ET resources they ever did in their   
   history.  In case you thought I was arguing from my imagination, or from   
   what happens to strike me as reasonable, I'm arguing from the NASA Summer   
   Studies on space settlement.   
      
   > 1.  The Lunar Power Grid + electric furnace.  Who cares if the electricity   
   > comes from solar panels on the other side of the moon or from a great big   
   > nuclear pile a couple of miles away...   
      
   A power grid spanning the entire globe of the moon would be a pretty   
   formidable industrial accomplishment.  I can't see it happening in any   
   near-term future.   
      
   It would be a shame if we went to all the expense of developing nuclear   
   power on the moon just because we couldn't overcome our planetary chauvinism   
   long enough to develop solar power outside the shadows of planets.  Nukes   
   are fairly high-tech, large mylar mirrors are pretty low-tech.  I know which   
   is going to have the bigger power bill.  With the space mirror, the heat   
   generated is used directly without any conversions and consequent efficiency   
   losses.   
      
   > 2.  Space furnace mirrors can point down at the lunar surface just as   
   > easy as at an orbital processing facility...   
      
   No, actually, that's where you're wrong.  The optical physics of it are such   
   that at several miles distance one would be forced to use mirror many times   
   bigger than otherwise (and also be forced to illuminate a much wider area   
   that what's desired).  In discussing a High Frontier type solar furnace,   
   we're discussing mirrors perhaps one or two times the area of a football   
   field.  To do what you propose would require mirrors the size of states or   
   small nations.   
      
   --   
      
      
   Regards,   
   Mike Combs   
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------   
   Member of the National Non-sequitur Society.  We may not make   
   much sense, but we do like pizza.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)