From: careysub@earthling.net   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:1138043278.690113.127830@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...   
   > Assuming a lunar settlement uses solar power for all their energy   
   > needs, the biggest problem is how to store power during the 328 hour   
   > lunar night.  If the solar panel 'farm' supporting the settlement were   
   > split into three farms, evenly spaced around the circumference of the   
   > moon, total power production would be relatively constant.  This would   
   > require greater production of solar cells than a single farm would use   
   > but would eliminate the need to store energy for 14 days.  Since the   
   > cost to build and send the solar cell manufacturing system to the Moon   
   > would probably far outweigh the operating costs, I expect even doubling   
   > the total number of solar cells would be cheaper than building and   
   > shipping a separate energy storage system to the Moon.   
   >   
   > Rather than running cable around the Moon, would it be possible to   
   > design wave-guides to carry the power efficiently as microwaves over   
   > the 1000s of km between solar farms?  How many would be needed and how   
   > large might they need to be?   
      
   Well, if we are building them on Earth and sending them up in rockets, and   
   their quite remote from the lunar settlement, and using microwave beam   
   transmission, then probably we should put them into lunar orbit and use the   
   long lines of sight that gives to beam them to a few receiving stations   
   close to the settlement. This would work particularly well if the settlement   
   was at a lunar pole, which is a common scenario.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)