“Imagine installing a solar array 1km wide along the 36,000km geostationary orbit,”
This seems like a very weird idea for where to put a space based solar array. The geostationary orbit is already pretty crowded, and a lot of the array would be edge on to the sun at any given time.
GEO is the traditional place to put powersats. They stay in the sun for like 99% of the year and they’re always above your rectenna. Also there’s way less variation in velocity among GEO satellites so you’d expect Kessler syndrome to be less of a concern.
This seems like a very weird idea for where to put a space based solar array. The geostationary orbit is already pretty crowded, and a lot of the array would be edge on to the sun at any given time.
GEO is the traditional place to put powersats. They stay in the sun for like 99% of the year and they’re always above your rectenna. Also there’s way less variation in velocity among GEO satellites so you’d expect Kessler syndrome to be less of a concern.
Sure, but a big ass square of powersat in GEO above your ground station is a very different prospect from a band around the entire orbit
Oh I seriously doubt they meant a 36,000 km by 1 km wide array. They probably mean 1km by 1km which should be gigawatt scale.
Maybe the article/translation mangled what the scientist they’re quoting was saying