01-03-2021, 01:03 PM | #31 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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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.
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01-03-2021, 04:26 PM | #32 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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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.
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01-03-2021, 04:46 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
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01-03-2021, 08:59 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
Quote:
Giant death rays are actually quite hard to build.
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01-03-2021, 09:38 PM | #35 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
It would actually be decently dangerous, but so is taking control of the power supply of a small country...
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01-03-2021, 11:39 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
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.
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01-03-2021, 11:50 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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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).
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01-04-2021, 12:41 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
Quote:
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.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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01-04-2021, 12:50 AM | #39 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
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.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
01-04-2021, 12:56 AM | #40 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: GURPS O'Neill Cylinder Design
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.
Last edited by Anthony; 01-04-2021 at 01:25 AM. |
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o'neill, o'neill cylinder, oberth cylinder, orbital habitat, space station, spaceships |
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