It's not science fiction, but the company doing it went bankrupt: <A science fiction author I read forwarded an idea many years ago. Whose idea was it originally? I do not know. Orbiting solar panel would shield the earth from solar rays while beaming electricity down via microwave. It would be paid for by the first world and while the third world rotated under the panels they would get a free or reduced cost ride. >
I was promoting the "cheap to third world" aspect. Actually, the cheap should be to anywhere where demand is low, not just to third world regions. For example, in India, due to the huge population, and the same in China, electricity demand would be huge, so prices would have to be high to balance supply and demand.
By maximizing revenue, further development could be funded, increasing capacity to the third world and lowering prices further while increasing quality.
I funded some of the development cost and launching was in the late 1990s.
Because management of the company and service providers had come up with a really dopey pricing scheme, way above terrestrial costs, few people bought the service, so bankruptcy soon followed.
We had 52 satellites up there, in orbit at 1414 kilometres, collecting sunlight on photovoltaic panels and beaming it down through microwave antennae to users in various areas, though not far out over oceans and only over limited parts of Earth.
We charged $3 a minute, which was ridiculously expensive, but management wouldn't believe me that CHEAP, meaning free until the system output was used to 50% capacity, was the way to go. No wonder it went broke. Dopey management deserves to be fired.
It's true that the shielding we provided was minuscule and it's also true that the energy we supplied was microscopic. But as BP says, "It's a start".
Nevertheless, the system is still functioning and gaining customers, more gateways are being built, they are developing new terrestrial receivers, and spreading around the world.
It's a privately owned company, so you can't buy shares in it yet, but next year shares should be sold to the public.
You can read more about it here. globalstar.com
Giggle,
Mqurice |
