Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-03-2021, 01:03 PM   #31
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

A lot of futuristic settings are over populated and/or have expansive nature preserves. Either of those would make reduced land area required for power quite desirable.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 04:26 PM   #32
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

I understand that you can used the land under a large microwave rectenna for other purposes, as the rectennas are rather open structures and block little rain or sunlight, and are light enough to suspend well above the ground.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 04:46 PM   #33
martinl
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
Orbiting gigawatt blasts are better for gaming mind you.
... if you have enough power sats you can redirect them to all aim at the same place, can't you?
martinl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 08:59 PM   #34
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
... if you have enough power sats you can redirect them to all aim at the same place, can't you?
If individually you had powersats that could deliver energy in concentrations equal to half of sunlight (though in longer wavelengths) aiming 10 powesats at the same area would enable you to boil water 5x as fast as leaving it out in normal sunshine.

Giant death rays are actually quite hard to build.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 09:38 PM   #35
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
If individually you had powersats that could deliver energy in concentrations equal to half of sunlight (though in longer wavelengths) aiming 10 powesats at the same area would enable you to boil water 5x as fast as leaving it out in normal sunshine.
It would actually be decently dangerous, but so is taking control of the power supply of a small country...
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 11:39 PM   #36
Rupert
 
Rupert's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
I understand that you can used the land under a large microwave rectenna for other purposes, as the rectennas are rather open structures and block little rain or sunlight, and are light enough to suspend well above the ground.
I remember a scene in one novel, where the protagonists are moving through a rectenna's 'shade' and it's being used as grazing for cows.
__________________
Rupert Boleyn

"A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history."
Rupert is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2021, 11:50 PM   #37
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

The best use is vegetable and fruit crops actually. The wire mesh can be placed 8' above the ground and they absorb ~100% of the microwaves, though only 80% gets turned into electricity (20% into waste heat). With the waste heat, you can grow vegetables and fruits outside of their normal growing season (while you could also do it with grains, grains are less profitable than vegetables and fruits).
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2021, 12:41 AM   #38
Rupert
 
Rupert's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The best use is vegetable and fruit crops actually. The wire mesh can be placed 8' above the ground and they absorb ~100% of the microwaves, though only 80% gets turned into electricity (20% into waste heat). With the waste heat, you can grow vegetables and fruits outside of their normal growing season (while you could also do it with grains, grains are less profitable than vegetables and fruits).
Depending on the design, you might not be able to fit harvesters between the rectenna supports, and people might be unwilling to work under them, for fear of being 'nuked', no matter the truth of the matter. Also, you can run cattle on land that's unsuitable for market gardens (and sheep on even worse land).

The point is, you can get dual-use out of the land by farming it with whatever works best on that land as well as having the rectenna converting microwaves to power.
__________________
Rupert Boleyn

"A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history."
Rupert is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2021, 12:50 AM   #39
Agemegos
 
Agemegos's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert View Post
I remember a scene in one novel, where the protagonists are moving through a rectenna's 'shade' and it's being used as grazing for cows.
I have an unplaceable memory of a story in which there was a coffee plantation under a power rectenna, which with the rectenna itself concealed some sort of villainous facility from observation.
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.
Agemegos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2021, 12:56 AM   #40
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The best use is vegetable and fruit crops actually.
I would avoid uses that run the risk of maintenance issues for the rectenna structure. Depending on the opacity of the rectenna, I might put a conventional solar farm under it -- there's some loss of efficiency because of light blocked by the rectenna, but you make up for it with simplifying your power grid.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.

Last edited by Anthony; 01-04-2021 at 01:25 AM.
Anthony is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
o'neill, o'neill cylinder, oberth cylinder, orbital habitat, space station, spaceships

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:22 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.