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X-37B Space Plane's Microwave Power Beam Experiment Is A Way Bigger Deal Than It Seems
The Drive ^ | 05/08/2020 | Brett Tingley

Posted on 05/10/2020 5:23:39 PM PDT by BenLurkin

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To: Vaquero
Yep.

The concept has been a staple of science fiction for as long as I can remember.

Wonder if it can fry bacon?

21 posted on 05/10/2020 6:19:12 PM PDT by Bratch (“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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To: Colorado Doug

Just google the term Tesla energy out of the ether. Very interesting..


22 posted on 05/10/2020 6:28:58 PM PDT by DEPcom (Need a new tag, hope my garden does not freeze tonight)
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


23 posted on 05/10/2020 7:02:51 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
...another payload aboard the X-37B will be an experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves.
Yeah, that won't warm the atmosphere at all. Gerard K. O'Neill ping. Thanks BenLurkin.

24 posted on 05/10/2020 7:19:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BenLurkin

I’m ok with a death ray in space. As long as it has no chinese hardware in it...


25 posted on 05/10/2020 7:42:06 PM PDT by Bayard
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To: BenLurkin

I remember when this concept was being pushed hard to power up the U.S., 73-74?
As usual the eco-nuts went berserk and it faded away.
I recall one of the claimed panics was that it would render migratory birds unable to navigate.


26 posted on 05/10/2020 8:43:38 PM PDT by Ex gun maker. (Unconstitutional "Law" is void from inception.....)
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To: Bratch

I bake bacon. Much less work. Just lay sliced bacon on cookie sheet ( foiled and Pam). Oven at 350 for 17 minutes. Check it then then leave it or take it out for desired crispness.


27 posted on 05/11/2020 4:50:17 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: SunkenCiv
"Yeah, that won't warm the atmosphere at all. Gerard K. O'Neill ping. Thanks BenLurkin."

The amount of power compared to the total solar flux is so miniscule as to be unmeasurable. Also, the in-orbit collectors intercept some of that incoming solar flux, so there "may" be no net increase, or an actual decrease in energy reaching the earth.

28 posted on 05/11/2020 4:54:21 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (No Longer Tolerating Trolls!)
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To: BenLurkin

Tesla’s dream has become reality....the sticking point was the efficient reception of such directed energy and conversion into useful amounts of electricity...

Tesla could beam energy out but couldn’t control it or convert it very well....

Looks like we can do it now.


29 posted on 05/11/2020 5:07:16 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: BenLurkin

Forget it. While it’s politically OK to kill birds with windmills, a military use of microwaves that may affect bird will be deemed intolerable.


30 posted on 05/11/2020 5:36:29 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: DEPcom
This is something that Gerard K. O'Neill proposed in 1969. It has been tested within the atmosphere since then, but this is the first time that I have heard of it being done from space.
31 posted on 05/11/2020 7:23:04 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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To: mdmathis6
"Looks like we can do it now."

Masers and lasers.....

32 posted on 05/11/2020 7:55:09 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (No Longer Tolerating Trolls!)
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To: Wonder Warthog

Converting that energy back into a usable form in the amounts we would need was the problem.

Tunable oscillating crystals that vibrate within magnetic fields seems to be the best way as long as they didn’t disintegrate from heat.


33 posted on 05/11/2020 8:02:24 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6

Dilithium crystals.


34 posted on 05/11/2020 8:06:22 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Colorado Doug

Vibrational kinetic energy captured from the very vibrations of the earth was one way he did it.

I remember one shuttle mission where they tried to unravel a thin wire about a mile long. The goal was to see if the wire would pick up magnetic energy fluxes strong enough to generate electricity from. Apparently they only got only a few hundred yards or so, then the mechanism got stuck....still with what they did get out they did get some power production from it. So the experiment wasn’t a complete flop.


35 posted on 05/11/2020 8:08:52 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6

More like quartz, silicon and germanium. IN Europe they sell a wireless recharging system for phones and laptops we haven’t seen too much of in the US though we do have recharging “plates” for cell phones now that use the same “oscillation” techniques.

A rectifying antenna is a scaled up version of the above idea...tuned to laser light or microwave energy...they will oscillate within magnetic field coils which then get rectified into direct current electricity which gets stored and harnessed for power.


36 posted on 05/11/2020 8:16:48 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6
"Converting that energy back into a usable form in the amounts we would need was the problem."

I'm sure it was "part" of the problem of practical application, but without a means of efficient transmission in free space...."ya got nuttin'.

37 posted on 05/11/2020 9:32:28 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (No Longer Tolerating Trolls!)
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To: BenLurkin
...experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves.

Weapon spinoff?

38 posted on 05/11/2020 9:41:34 AM PDT by GOPJ (Was misery & death worth the four bucks saved on the crappy waffle-iron 'made in China?)
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To: Deaf Smith
What's a little mircrowave go'in to do?

Virus hates microwaves...

Scan the planet for a few weeks and kill off stuff sitting around kitchen counters, floors, hospital treatment rooms, and restaurant table tops...

Bye bye Wuhan filth virus... (of course the Chinese wrap their virus in layers of plastic before sending it through Amazon - - attached to commercial kitchen equipment etc...)

Microwaves go through plastic wrap, right?

39 posted on 05/11/2020 9:49:48 AM PDT by GOPJ (Was misery & death worth the four bucks saved on the crappy waffle-iron 'made in China?)
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