Lighting the dark (night) areas on earth with sun light conveyed from bright areas?

[Shmel]

Totally a useless proposition - you must be one of the loony left voters?

You must be a freaking internet telepath, ah?

You may mumble whatever you want, dude, but orbital mirrors and solar sails are not a fiction, but ongoing research, and probably better investment than those multimillion few megawatts solar power plants which were build plenty during recent years.

[Shmel]

So when are you going to cough up around $1 Billion dollars to do that?

Can not find any budget information on Russian Znamya satellites, but Japanese IKAROS, which was driven by solar sail, which is basically a big mirror, did cost 16 million to build. This is cost of average research project.

[russ]

This stuff is a science fiction which was actually implemented in reality 20 years ago. Couple of hundred meters wide mirror is not that big and absolutely possible to put onto orbit. And it also serves as a solar sale allowing a satellite to maneuver on the orbit.

You are dreaming about the cost and the practicality! Doing something on a mini scale and comparing it to a super size unit has no meaning whatsoever.

A functional and useful unit was NOT implemented twenty years back - a toy like DIY panels may have been.

Positioning equipment in orbit is not so easy as you might suggest - solar sail (not sale - that is Walmart) is of marginal use in some cases.

Totally a useless proposition - you must be one of the loony left voters?

[Sunking]

This stuff is a science fiction which was actually implemented in reality 20 years ago. Couple of hundred meters wide mirror is not that big and absolutely possible to put onto orbit. And it also serves as a solar sale allowing a satellite to maneuver on the orbit.

So when are you going to cough up around $1 Billion dollars to do that?

[Shmel]

Come on! The amount of mirror required plus the propulsion/guidance system required is well past anything we presently are capable of - year 2525 - maybe.

This is stuff from science fiction - from a rather poor selling author.

This stuff is a science fiction which was actually implemented in reality 20 years ago. Couple of hundred meters wide mirror is not that big and absolutely possible to put onto orbit. And it also serves as a solar sale allowing a satellite to maneuver on the orbit.

[Sunny Solar]

You guys suggesting they would just spend about 3.8 kazillion dollars just so cities dont need street lights.??
And who is going to repay me the money for the shorter life of my curtains??? Bet you havent been thinking much about the importance of that.

[russ]

This project has nothing to do with solar panels. This is about illumination of large areas on the night side of the Earth. For example, zones of natural disasters could be illuminated this way to let rеscue teams work 24 hours a day.

Come on! The amount of mirror required plus the propulsion/guidance system required is well past anything we presently are capable of - year 2525 - maybe.

This is stuff from science fiction - from a rather poor selling author.

[Shmel]

But to get that spot bright enough to produce usable power from a solar panel is going to take a mirror a hundred times that size to just do that spot.. Gets kinda expensive.

This project has nothing to do with solar panels. This is about illumination of large areas on the night side of the Earth. For example, zones of natural disasters could be illuminated this way to let rеscue teams work 24 hours a day.

[billvon]

But to get that spot bright enough to produce usable power from a solar panel is going to take a mirror a hundred times that size to just do that spot.. Gets kinda expensive.

Why would you need solar? You use the light as is. (You don't need streetlights if you can light the streets from reflected sun, for example.)

[Sunny Solar]

There were other experiments proposed with larger mirrors which were supposed to produce a spot as bright as several full Moons, but this research was abandoned in 1999.
But to get that spot bright enough to produce usable power from a solar panel is going to take a mirror a hundred times that size to just do that spot.. Gets kinda expensive.

[Shmel]

The use of orbital mirrors for illumination of cities at night has been proposed several times and is relatively simple (if expensive to implement.)

This idea was actually tested in 1992 by Russian Space Agency. Search wikipedia for znamya-2. During this experiment a 20 meters orbital mirror produced a 5 km wide spot on the surface with brightness of full Moon. There were other experiments proposed with larger mirrors which were supposed to produce a spot as bright as several full Moons, but this research was abandoned in 1999.

[russ]

A world wide electrical is the only way to go and it has been proposed many times before. But nothing has ever come of it. Hard to get every country to cooperate AND actually put up MONEY.. One idea was supercooled conductors to keep wire size down to manageable sizes.

But dont expect any result until at least after next christmas.

Or maybe New Years - 2525

[Sunking]

We do not yet have the optical fiber equivalent of superconductors. Here's hoping that there is something coming in that direction.
Also, a break in a fiber carry that amount of power could be interesting!

It would make a nice Space Heater for something like a domed foot ball stadium to cook the fans to medium well done.

[inetdog]

Optical fiber has some problems with transmission losses and power handling capability; you'd be talking gigawatts of optical power being transmitted.

We do not yet have the optical fiber equivalent of superconductors. Here's hoping that there is something coming in that direction.
Also, a break in a fiber carrying that amount of power could be interesting!

[billvon]

Optical fiber cable can be thought for that conveyance. Sun lights from the brighting areas are captured, concentrated, fed into the optical fibers (ideally the optical fibers form a global ring circling around the earth’s equator) and conveyed to the night areas on earth.

The use of orbital mirrors for illumination of cities at night has been proposed several times and is relatively simple (if expensive to implement.) Optical fiber has some problems with transmission losses and power handling capability; you'd be talking gigawatts of optical power being transmitted.