China Considering Orbital Laser to Fight Pollution

So China may build a power station in space to beam down energy to earth from orbit. It may aid with polution and replace the mass use of coal burning which is the leading cause of pollution. Looks like it may be clear skies ahead. I think its a good idea, but probably has military perks as well. Supposed to be ready by 2050, should be interesting to see. I dont see why earth solar pannels couldnt do the same thing, why there is the need to put them in space baffles me.

www.ntd.tv...
There''s a new solution for China''s pollution problem—a giant solar powered laser floating around in space! According to China''s Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency, this will be "the largest-ever space project." According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, by 2050, China will have a trillion dollar gigantic spacecraft with 2 square miles of solar panels, collecting solar energy to power the Earth in the form of lasers. The pollution, climate change, energy crisis has been solved.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

How wide is this laser beam going to be? Seems like very slow method.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

China with orbiting lasers . Nothing could go wrong there .

just a reason to weaponize space? Is there any health effects?

originally posted by: MrMaybeNot
a reply to: FormOfTheLord

How wide is this laser beam going to be? Seems like very slow method.

I have no idea but I guess they will be focusing the energy into a single area so probably pretty small.

Well, the insolation in space is head and shoulders over what you get on the ground. And there's no weather. Or dirt.

OTOH, you can't maintain it easily, you lose power in the laser and on the ground converting it back to electricity, so the extra's probably a wash.

But you DO get a really neat spaceborne solar powered laser, so it's got that going for it.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Take a pot of water with a sealed top and sit it on the ground. Day and night, sunshine and darkness. The pot of water will heat and cool according to the "natural" energy it receives. Call it the earth. Now stick an electric heater under the pot running on low all the time. Call the electric heater the idiot Chinese laser.

Let me know how long before the pot of water explodes or ruptures.

You can't inject more energy into a system beyond it's natural ground state. Nasty stuff happens. Obviously the Chinese are not smart enough to realize this simple fact. A laser LOL, what a bunch of retards. The planet will be a big ass dessert within 5 years, more than likely 3. And are they ready for the meter or two ocean rise in a year or two?

What did Einstein say, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Bedlam

Do you mind telling me the difference between this and Japan's previous declaration of wireless energy transmission?

That old thread...

This seems like more propagandist optimism if I'm saying that correctly. I haven't been able to find any sound science behind it. Maybe I can't get through their firewall?

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

This has been talked about as a solution for quite a while. Last year it was a cover article on it in Popular Mechanics and a few other magazines.

Here is an article on Japans plan to do the same.

How Japan Plans to Build an Orbital Solar Farm

Here is NASA's


NASA Wants to Beam Microwave Energy to Earth with a Solar Power Plant in Space | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building



The articles I read last year said 7 stations could fill the world's power needs.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
a reply to: FormOfTheLord

This has been talked about as a solution for quite a while. Last year it was a cover article on it in Popular Mechanics and a few other magazines.

Here is an article on Japans plan to do the same.

How Japan Plans to Build an Orbital Solar Farm

Here is NASA's


NASA Wants to Beam Microwave Energy to Earth with a Solar Power Plant in Space | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

The articles I read last year said 7 stations could fill the world's power needs.

I think big oil wont like the sound of this worlds power needs being met thingy.

First time I visited China in 97 I was claustrophobic from the pollution.
I could look directly at the sun without squinting and never once saw a sky.

Anything that works! But I get Doctor Evil vibe from China's "Frickin Laser Beam" plans.

originally posted by: eisegesis
a reply to: Bedlam

Do you mind telling me the difference between this and Japan's previous declaration of wireless energy transmission?

It's sort of similar, and both are similar to the same thing as previously diddled with by Eastlund in the 70s and 80s. It's an old idea.

Not necessarily bad, either, scientifically. *However.* I am not sure I trust US with a giant petawatt orbital laser, much less China, Nork, Russia, Saudi Arabia and so on. It's a bad, bad, bad idea politically.

I'd rather sell China a lot of nice LockMar fusion reactors.

Ah, here's a bit more...

The project, which is still in the conceptual stage, would involve a satellite that weighs more than 10,000 lbs., dwarfing anything previously placed into orbit, including the International Space Station, according to the China-based Xinhuanet, part of the Xinhua News Agency.

They're forcasting an array that is twice the size of central park. I'd love to see how they're going to launch deploy that bad boy. A little history...

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA jointly investigated the concept of space-based solar power under the Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program. In 1999, the Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology program (SERT) was created by NASA to study the feasibility, design, and requirements of space-based solar power.

Both the US and Japan aren't going to get one in space any sooner than China will. A little competition never hurt though. And God knows after they become efficient enough we could transmit that power into any ground based target that we would like erased off of the face of the earth.

Link 1
Link 2

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Isn't this a violation of the Outer Space Treaty? I don't see many western nations being happy with China doing this.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

I think big oil wont like the sound of this worlds power needs being met thingy.

That is why China has a better chance at completing the project.

The US wouldn't be able to fund one because energy corporations with their politicians would kill it.


Unlike others I am not worried about a space laser platform. That would be one expensive weapon that could be decimated by much cheaper weapons.

China: Woohoo, I will blast you with my Trillion dollar laser.

US: HAHA, I just blew up your Trillion dollar laser with my Million dollar missile.


An investment of that magnitude would only be worth it if it had a return of equal or better which supplying their countries energy needs would fulfill.

Sorry, nevermind...

originally posted by: SpongeBeard
a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Isn't this a violation of the Outer Space Treaty? I don't see many western nations being happy with China doing this.

No because its not a weapon of mass destruction per say. The damage done by such a device would be minimal at best. Besides I think there are already plenty of secret lasers in space by a few nations we will leave unnamed.

originally posted by: bobs_uruncle
a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Take a pot of water with a sealed top and sit it on the ground. Day and night, sunshine and darkness. The pot of water will heat and cool according to the "natural" energy it receives. Call it the earth. Now stick an electric heater under the pot running on low all the time. Call the electric heater the idiot Chinese laser.

I think you have a point. Why not use ground based solar energy collection systems which won't upset the thermal balance of the Earth like beaming energy down from space can?

www.pennenergy.com...

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Ground-based solar is limited by the length of the day and seasonal weather patterns.

One of the things I remember about the proposed project is how it could be positioned for a continuous source of energy.

It could even remain stationary using smaller orbital satellites to redirect the beam as the earth rotates. If they can shut down their coal plants then it would be a wash as far as energy imput and output in out atmosphere.

a reply to: Grimpachi
Good points, but we both know they aren't going to shut down any coal plants as a result of this if they do it. They have growing demand so they would just build fewer new coal plants.

There's some debate about climate change but if we start beaming more energy to the Earth from space,I think there would be less debate about whether that will warm the Earth. The only question would be, how much?

I think it's inevitable that all the fossil fuels we can access are going to get burned at some point in time.