eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) (04/06/88)
Dani Eder gave a good summary of the nuts & bolts of solar power satellites and how they transmit power. Dani mentioned in another article that surface albedo changes due to human structures would cause more heat to be absorbed than if humans weren't around... perhaps to the point where energy absorbed from solar satellites would be dwarfed... i don't think the albedo question is quite this simple -- the albedo of the earth as seen from space is largely determined by the albedo of the atmosphere (cloud cover). it is relatively reflective, since the earth is usually 70% covered by clouds. thus the ground albedo is not the major factor in overall planetary albedo (in the earth's case). the 70% number gives an order of magnitude in favor of my 'thermal paranoia' stance -- certainly current human power needs are somewhere between 10^4 and 10^6 down from incident solar flux, depending on whose back of the envelope is correct... factoring in cloud cover, the solar flux that is not reflected back into space goes down by nearly another order of magnitude... thanks for the insights, Dani... i hope to hear more...