Japan Wants To Turn The Moon Into A Giant Power Plant

[Buster's Uncle]

Japan Wants To Turn The Moon Into A Giant Power Plant
Business Insider
By Dylan Love 2 hours ago


Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese architecture and engineering firm, has a plan to effectively turn the moon into a giant solar power plant, reports Inhabitat .

It proposes building a massive collection of solar panels (a "Luna Ring") 6,800 miles long by 12 miles wide on the moon's surface. That's certainly a heavy-duty construction job for human beings, so Shimizu plans to get the work done with robots, only involving humans in supervisory roles.

Once complete, this hypothetical plant could continuously send energy to "receiving stations" around the globe by way of lasers and microwave transmission. This idea gets around two major hurdles for solar power, as there is no weather or darkness to curb electricity production on the moon. If operating in ship-shape, Shimizu says it could continuously send 13,000 terawatts of power back to Earth. By comparison, it took the United States all of 2011 to generate 4,100 terawatts of power.

It's big thinking that we're skeptical will ever see fruition, but we like where Shimizu's coming from. It believes that "v irtually inexhaustible, non-polluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy that brings prosperity to nature as well as our lives. Shimizu Corporation proposes the Luna Ring for the infinite coexistence of mankind and the Earth."



Shimizu Corporation


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-wants-turn-moon-giant-155241164.html

[Fal]

I love the idea, but as difficult as it would be from an engineering standpoint, I think getting the rest of the world to agree to allowing that level of construction on the Moon would be even tougher.

[Buster's Uncle]

Good luck with the collection sites, too...

[Geo]

Dunno, Earth's geostationary orbit is wider (more room to cram panels in), closer (easier for maintenance and replacement), an more versatile for the positioning in respect to ground receiving stations.

[ariete]

Good luck with the collection sites, too...

... where??

[Buster's Uncle]

Nowhere near me, I hope.

[ariete]

i had no doubts ...

[Geo]

Good luck with the collection sites, too...

... where??

Not near me, population density is too high here.

[ariete]

pollution density is too high here ... and it seems where are you too

air pollution in europe mapped by satellite 2 months ago

[Vishniac]

Making plans and powerpoint presentations doesn't cost much and make fools dance! Just like NASA manned 'program'.

It's like Russia and its space news propaganda: every week we can read another article about a new rocket, a new spacecraft, nuclear engines, going to the Moon or Mars...but in reality they do nothing. The maiden flight of their new family of Angara rockets should have happened in...2003! We are still waiting.
New spacecraft? They put all their money in useless tanks and missiles but shelved the Clipper project because ESA didn't want to finance it.

I'll be more interested to know how goes the japanese project of experimental solar power satellites. I seem to recall it was a private corporation undertaking it too.
If nothing happens with the first step, then no need to clutter our forums and news-sites with useless trash. But that's Internet today...