Been there. Done that.
Posted on 12/08/2013 1:47:56 PM PST by BenLurkin
An idea for sending power over long distances via lasers and balloonsMovie Camera could help provide emergency power where it is needed. Stephen Blank of the New York Institute of Technology wants to use aerostats, military-grade balloons, to send hundreds of kilowatts of power over several hundred kilometres.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
What about sharks?
I’m not sure you can send sharks long-distance using aerostats, but I will admit that no one has tried.
SyFy could combine Sharknado with their electric tornado movie!
Not a new idea. Devil’s in the details.
I’m talking about shark with friggin lasers on their heads. They could beam the power under water!
Solar arrays in space beaming power back to earth might be worthwhile.
How would that platform provided enough stability to the systems without causing wave attenuation from atmospherics or plain missing the target because of “buoyancy?
I’m kidding. The thing about sharks delivering electricity, though - it has an upside: nobody, and I mean NOBODY messes with the meter readers.
It’s rather like what you get when you cross an elephant and a rhinoceros.
You get an “Ellifino.”
Been there. Done that.
Like Barry says “I ear you”.
I think it would work better if the balloons were used to hang power wires with, quite frankly, with appropriate insulator setups so that the two wires for the circuit aren’t allowed to get too close. High voltage can be used as needed, with constant monitoring of the balloons so that the power can be cut for safety’s sake if a wire falls from a balloon. Lasers... too much possibility of the beam getting blocked. And we could end up with fricasseed birds.
Too much power loss. It takes 50-100 watts (or more) of electrical power to produce 1 watt of laser energy. To convert it back to electrical energy would see a similar loss, not to mention losses from atmospheric interference and beam dispersion.
For the cost, complexity, and inefficiency to turn energy into a laser then a laser back into energy (and beam it via balloon), I would think there is nowhere on earth that it would not be cheaper and easier to use PV panels and batteries.
Indeed! Tesla did it a lot cleaner too.
Sometimes it seems mind-boggling how common sense escapes these people.
> Stephen Blank of the New York Institute of Technology wants to use aerostats, military-grade balloons, to send hundreds of kilowatts of power over several hundred kilometres.
May be related to the flying high-altitude windmills that get touted by (presumably) gullible journalists every few years.
Thanks BenLurkin.
http://wonderfulengineering.com/worlds-first-flying-windmill/
Reminds me of a bet I made a long, long time ago. :-)
I had a friend who collected antique radios, as did I.
We were talking about the possibility of sending wireless power and what it would entail.
I bet him I could within two hours construct a device to send power over a distance of 100 yards to a receiver that would convert it to direct current while using absolutely no electrical parts at the sending location. And it would also transmit data to the receiver using Morse code.
He considered it for a while and said it would be worth losing the bet just to see such a contraption...lol
I made a simple oscillator using a low-power 555 timer IC hooked to a small speaker. I hooked this gizmo to a 100 watt solar panel and duct taped the whole outfit to the side of a shed that was in shade.
I then constructed an ugly, makeshift frame from 2x4 stock that held a small mirror that could swivel on two dowel pins. The mirror was made semi rigid to the frame using two rubber bands. Then I connected a piece of string to the mirror so that a makeshift wooden morse key would deflect it when pressed. I aimed the rig so it would cast sunlight onto the solar panel only when the Morse key was pressed... then I sent the morse equivalent of hilarious laughter to my surprised friend standing by the gizmo taped to the shed wall.
I still have the old Philco Tombstone radio :-)
I had thought about such things some time before when asked how to most simply send data to an orbiting satellite. I came up with several methods that took no electronic equipment at all and also allowed the person sending data to get a reply. The methods were extremely interesting and once they were explained were so simple that anyone could immediately see that they would indeed work.
Bump
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