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The main issue with beaming solar power from orbit to surface is that this can be a weapon at a push of a button. There is no way you can make the owner of that orbit-based power station to promise they'll never redirect the beam, under any circumstances, cross their heart and hope to die. The only way to not have that threat is to not have the power station up there.

And that's how it's going to be. No matter how technically feasible the idea will ever be, it will never materialize, because the weaponization potential cannot be eliminated.



Every square in of the Earth is within the range of a weapon of mass destruction already. What's another?

(Speaking realistically, it would not be a weapon. These things take acres of antennas to collect power from.)


> These things take acres of antennas to collect power from.

Ok. Now imagine you redirect the beam to a random substation somewhere. What's the likelihood some of the transformers will fry? Or you point the beam at some cellular phone network towers?

Russia is at war right now, and they have lots of antennas pointing up, both for anti-air defense and for electronic warfare. All those would be immediately vulnerable to a concentrated power beam coming from the sky. How likely are they to say, "sure, no big deal, as long as you promise to only use that stuff for power generation, we are totally, absolutely fine with it" ?


The beam isn't necessarily concentrated enough to be damaging, so it isn't obvious that such a system would be a weapon.

In other words, the weaponization potential can be eliminated, and doesn't exist in lots of proposed designs.


>... because the weaponization potential cannot be eliminated.

So you're saying it'd make for an excellent cover story?

Besides, I've always been annoyed that Goldeneye wasn't real. Not so much Under Siege II.


If one just concentrates solar energy that would have hit other parts of the Earth, I don’t see why there would be a net heating.

That said, large scale concentration could still be extremely distributive on a regional scale.




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