That was the very first thought I had when I saw the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62636746) the title doesn’t help ‘How solar farms in space might beam electricity to Earth’ there we are given “SEI is working on a project called Cassiopeia, which plans to place a constellation of very large satellites in a high Earth orbit.” So, my first question, did anyone see the movie Gravity? It’s the one where we see Sandra Bullock shone over George Clooney (who does an awesome job). With Star-link and a few other contenders and the weakest link is some Russian wannabe shooting a cluster rocket into space. Don’t ell me that this will not happen, these fuckers are doing a lot worse to the Ukraine, as such the Russian problem will be hanging over out shoulders. However, there is this disc in the sky, it seems round and they all it the moon. The same side is pointed at the sun 24:7, as such you can place a solar-farm the size of Texas there. There are a few other benefits, with THAT much power you could fuel a station there. There are a few other benefits, but that is the gist of it. A station that does the repairs and once every 6 months you can send a tank of water, with an added tank (see below) to keep the troops motivated.
It is not the weirdest idea either. There has been a massive need of power for the longest time and the Sun can provide. The fact that until recently we did nothing is because some stakeholders needed to appease whomever pays them and now that shortage can no longer be hidden. Now, as we take notice of “The solar energy collected by the satellites would be converted into high frequency radio waves and beamed to a rectifying antenna on Earth, which would convert the radio waves into electricity.” Yet in space these waves do not deteriorate and the moon would allow a wave 20-50 times the size, implying that the earth could get 20-50 times the energy. With the moon as a structure much heavier solar panels would be possible as weight does not need to be kept in place and there you have a larger solution that might take another pie-gobbler out of the equation. I have nothing against the SEI, but should this not be something NSA and the ESA need to work on? And when we have the energy sorted out, we can continue to ignore more environmental issues, or get some Guardian reporter to blame the uber-rich and their jets. Now, it would be nice to see another article with the SEI making claims that my idea is a bad idea (it could be), and how satellites are the best solution, and that might be true. But in space no one can hear you scream and radio-waves go on forever, a simple lesson I learned decades ago in high school. So where is that plan for a moon base and for everything holy, lets not forget about the can of Heineken, it is hard enough to keep scientists motivated without the clear possibility of sex. Beer might do the trick (no promises).
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 