Fenn wrote:
Don't have the exact answer to your question, but here are some things I know about broadcast power in other areas:
The story goes that the microwave oven was discovered when it was noticed that radar dishes transmitted heat on aircraft carriers. One story was that those on night watch noticed feeling warmer when they passed the dish so they would then go there on purpose to get warm. Another story was that someone had a bar of chocolate in his pocket and it melted.
Lazers were suggested when Regan was president as anti-missile weapons and also "rail guns" which used electrostatic acceleration of bits of metal as a sort of anti-missile gun. The idea was if we could see the missiles from space, perhaps we could also defend from space. The project was popularly called "Star Wars". It was partially real engineering / scientific development and partially propaganda - hard to tell exactly how much of each. If we could convince the Russians we could do it then they might give us an advantage in negotiations - and they might spend money on a similar project which could then not be spent on other things. "Politics is stupid but important".
Space based solar also uses broadcast power as part of the idea - if you want to capture the solar energy in space and use it on earth (you might not - you might want to use it in space on on the moon, on Mars, etc) you need a way to get the power to earth. Microwaves and Lasers have been suggested. The devil is in the details.
I read of a small start up company that could recharge a phone battery or other small piece of electronics using ultra sound. The real trick was a way to detect the target in 3d and broadcast the ultrasound from several different locations at once so only the place where the waves overlapped received the power. It was supposed to work, but I never heard about it again.
With some of these ideas the trick is dollars more than physics - it might work but cost much more than the alternatives already available. With space based solar the one cost it loss from atmospheric interference. With that one there are some many people working on it and so much power available in space that I think it will really happen sooner or later.
Nikola Tesla was supposed to have experimented with broadcast power as well.
Some amateur HAM radio operators use a trick where they use power from a local strong radio station as a power source and use the power to amplify a further away and weaker signal. A neat trick.
You might also be interested in this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart%27s_FunniesHad to suck to be a radar tech back the the early days, especially finding out you'd been sterilized later.
I suppose much of this kind of information could be a political psyop of a sort.
I do recall some things by Zubrin about how space based power transfer via microwaves would be prone to accidentally roasting adjacent surface areas next to the ground station, though he said it in the forms of jokes that I don't recall the exact wording of. I think it was in "How to live on Mars" or one of his videos if they're still on YouTube or wherever else. Probably quite useful as an orbital weapon system, kinda like the ion cannon for GDI in Command & Conquer. I'd rather the power transfer system be through systems of batteries, using cargo ships with mylar sails. Or if quantum coupling in Ian Douglas' novels like Starstrike is actually useful then that would be even better. Risk of accidentally, or "accidentally" frying things is a bit too high with microwave beam power transfer.
Interesting they were going to use ultrasound. Piezoelectric microphones probably. For resonance with ultrasound they would have to be smaller, though smaller also means less surface area to absorb sound to convert the energy's form. Might make more sense to use a larger microphone, more collection area, and probably would work fairly well in loud places like factories. Maybe a cell phone cover could have that.
I suppose going through the atmosphere, space based solar might be useful for creating lightning. Use a laser to make a plasma channel, then make some voltage differences with the microwave beam.
11 Sep 2021, 7:14 am
