The most powerful energy source

[softdragonz]

Undoubtedly we are paving way to the renewable sources of energy. I assume that intensity of heat recieved by a body from a star decreases as we move away from it. (the surface of temperature of mercury is much greater than that of Pluto)

 

I was wondering that instead of having a solar energy system inside our planet, why can't a solar system be sent into space as close to the sun as possible.....perhaps more energy can be derived that way.....to server generations

[timo]

What do you do with the energy your solar panels collect, then?

[Asimov Pupil]

Why not just wait for a very efficient fussion generator? you wouldn't have the problem of building a panel to send into space and then when you get the energy you would have to bring it back somehow.

[TheDMan05]

The energy could be transfered to a receiver on Earth in the form of microwaves. It would be a very efficient method of transfering the energy that is collected.

[Klaynos]

right so you're going to collect electromagnetic waves with a big thing that will take LOTS of energy to build and send into space in the correct position and then transmit using some probably very lossy method other em waves to earth to be collected by another lossy collection method?

[TheDMan05]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23mar_1.htm

 

Look here.

[Sisyphus]

why can't a solar system be sent into space as close to the sun as possible.....

 

At first I thought you were talking about moving the Earth closer to the sun...

 

On a related note, try googling "Dyson spheres." The logical extension of what you're talking about.

[ecoli]

The energy could be transfered to a receiver on Earth in the form of microwaves. It would be a very efficient method of transfering the energy that is collected.

 

That would be a big waste of energy. the amount of energy to build the "solar system" and sending out into space, converting the energy into microwaves, and building a system to convert this into usable system... not to mention that Microwaves are more dangerous then heat. Anyway, its pointless to convert the energy like this.

[silkworm]

We're not that desperate for solar energy that we need to go and get it. There's more than enough sun that hits the surface of the Earth to supply our energy needs. We just need more effecient and durable panels and better batteries.

[ecoli]

We're not that desperate for solar energy that we need to go and get it. There's more than enough sun that hits the surface of the Earth to supply our energy needs. We just need more effecient and durable panels and better batteries.

 

very true, and luckily enough people are interested in this type of technology that it is getting better and cheaper.

[silkworm]

Ecoli,

 

Did you hear that there has been such a solar boom in California that panels are backordered for 6 months? It's just something I heard and I was hoping it was true.

[ecoli]

Ecoli' date='

 

Did you hear that there has been such a solar boom in California that panels are backordered for 6 months? It's just something I heard and I was hoping it was true.[/quote']

 

no... I haven't heard that. I'd say it's good news, but if there back ordered that means people aren't getting their solar cells!

 

Seriously though, I know about two are three households that are currently using solar cells where I live. Which isn't bad, considering I'm not living in "sunny california." My parents are seirously considering getting them. We just hav to figure out how long before they pay for themselves. cost is always a factor. But with increaing oil prices I'd say we will get them within a year or possibly two.

[softdragonz]

That would be a big waste of energy. the amount of energy to build the "solar system" and sending out into space' date=' converting the energy into microwaves, and building a system to convert this into usable system... .[/quote']

 

Of course the energy to build a solar space system would be darn difficult...but think what would happen after you build it. It would stay there for a BILLION years.....(average life time remaining for the sun)

 

Definitely the first nation to do that would seriously release its wrinkles on energy crisis (...provided the system works )

 

 

READ THIS:

 

According to an April 2000 article in the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Journal, photovoltaic arrays in a geostationary Earth orbit (at an altitude of 22,300 miles) would receive, on average, eight times as much sunlight as they would on Earth's surface. That means, closer to the sun, more the energy

 

Now, even if we install a solar system near venus or something......do we experience power transmission losses?? Perhaps it would be better to transmit the power generated in some form of electromagnetic radiations...as they travel fast minimising losses

[Quantoman]

would it be better to try to collect the antimatter from the

sun? i think it would be worth the effort and energy if we

could get a pound of that stuff.

[Klaynos]

would it be better to try to collect the antimatter from the

sun? i think it would be worth the effort and energy if we

could get a pound of that stuff.

 

 

Even if we found a way of capturing anti-matter from the sun (tbh I wasn't aware of it emmiting much/any) how would we store it?

[Quantoman]

a magnetic trap?

[Klaynos]

We'd have to make a fully evacuated box and then expend lots of energy creating the magnetic field :|

[Quantoman]

but it would be worth it?

[[Tycho?]]

but it would be worth it?

 

As far as I know no antimatter is emitted from the sun, I dont see how it would be since it would have to be created apart from any mater for it to make it away from the sun. Then if you captured it in a magnetic field you would also caputure all the normal matter charged particles of which there are many.....

 

So no, it would not be worth it.

[Kermit]

You know, antimatter-matter annihilation converts every single bit of mass into energy.. that's a 100 percent efficiency right there.

 

Maybe we should ask Leonard Nimoy.

[softdragonz]

You know' date=' antimatter-matter annihilation converts every single bit of mass into energy.. that's a 100 percent efficiency right there.

[/quote']

 

As per the brief history of time, the particle accelerators that are required to produce anti matter would be at least as large as the solar system ..... which is unfortunately not possible as per present economic conditions

[Quantoman]

As far as I know no antimatter is emitted from the sun, I dont see how it would be since it would have to be created apart from any mater for it to make it away from the sun. Then if you captured it in a magnetic field you would also caputure all the normal matter charged particles of which there are many.....

 

 

 

 

-antimatter is when a high-energy proton in a solar flare collides with carbon, It can form a type of nitrogen that has too many protons relative to its number of neutrons, This makes its nucleus unstable, and a positron is emitted to stabilize the situation.

 

-Looping eruptions on the Sun create antimatter.

 

-i am sure if we would attempt to collect the antimatter with a magnetic trap

we would also know that it would have to filter out matter...

 

 

___________________

 

free thinkers need debunkers and debunkers need free thinkers

[Klaynos]

I feel that that anti-matter probably anihilates long before it ever reaches us...

 

How could we filter out matter?

[[Tycho?]]

As per the brief history of time, the particle accelerators that are required to produce anti matter would be at least as large as the solar system ..... which is unfortunately not possible as per present economic conditions

 

You might want to re-read the book. It has been possible to create anti-matter for several decades now at CERN. In extremely tiny quantities, but definately created. I remember that passage of the book, and whatever he was talking about I dont think it was anti-matter.

 

-antimatter is when a high-energy proton in a solar flare collides with carbon' date=' It can form a type of nitrogen that has too many protons relative to its number of neutrons, This makes its nucleus unstable, and a positron is emitted to stabilize the situation.

 

-Looping eruptions on the Sun create antimatter.

 

-i am sure if we would attempt to collect the antimatter with a magnetic trap

we would also know that it would have to filter out matter...[/quote']

 

There is no way that kind of beta decay (sounds like it would be beta decay anyway) would form nearly enough anti-matter to be of any use. The vast vast vast VAST majority of it would just hit some particle nearby an annhilate itself.

 

How is anti-matter created from looping eruptions? (I assume you are reffering to solar flares) Regardless, it would suffer from the same difficulty of there being too much matter around for the anti-matter to collide with.

 

And how could you filter out matter? You would have to somehow filter protons and atomic nuclei (which are positively charged, like positrons) as well as any free electrons, which are the same mass as positrons. Seems hard to filter. Plus your filtration system couldn't use much energy, otherwise you'd end up using more energy to filter then you would gain from the anti-matter.

 

And if we want to go into technicalities, how do you propose actually getting usable energy from the anti-matter?

[Quantoman]

There is no way that kind of beta decay (sounds like it would be beta decay anyway) would form nearly enough anti-matter to be of any use. The vast vast vast VAST majority of it would just hit some particle nearby an annhilate itself.

 

 

-i think we all know this already...its was hypothetical reasoning... key word here is (IF) we could get a satellite close enough to the sun it would be better to try to collect antimatter.

 

 

How is anti-matter created from looping eruptions? (I assume you are reffering to solar flares) Regardless, it would suffer from the same difficulty of there being too much matter around for the anti-matter to collide with.

 

 

-yes i was reffering to solar flares.

 

 

And how could you filter out matter? You would have to somehow filter protons and atomic nuclei (which are positively charged, like positrons) as well as any free electrons, which are the same mass as positrons. Seems hard to filter. Plus your filtration system couldn't use much energy, otherwise you'd end up using more energy to filter then you would gain from the anti-matter.

 

And if we want to go into technicalities, how do you propose actually getting usable energy from the anti-matter?

 

 

-now if i answer any of those questions you would have to pay my way through a physics degree, until then i will let u ponder those question.

 

-again hypothetically if we some how can figure out how to get close enough to the sun with out blowing up, and firgure out how to fliter out matter from

antimatter we will have a good source of energy.

 

plain and simple....