Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site proper.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!nsc!proper!dsmith From: dsmith@proper.UUCP (David Smith) Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics Subject: Re: alternate, hopefully safe, energy sources Message-ID: <1494@proper.UUCP> Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 16:22:41 EDT Article-I.D.: proper.1494 Posted: Tue Aug 7 16:22:41 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Aug-84 03:46:58 EDT References: <9368@gatech.UUCP> <329@utastro.UUCP>, <355@utmbvax.UUCP> Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA Lines: 15 {A sacrifice to the (hopefully) mythical line eater} We already havea large fusion reaction. It's called the sun. The problem is doing anything with all the energy we get out of it. If we had an efficient method of converting light energy to electricity, we'd have it made. A gravity containment reactor would pose the same problems as the sun. There's a hell of a lot of energy coming out of it, but how do you use it? Any method of collecting the power would have to be in space, and once you've got it, how the heck do you get it down here? Microwaves have been proposed for power transmissions, but whenever I think of microwaves carrying enough energy to actually be useful, I keep on seeing all these birds, airliners, etc. flying through the beam and getting cooked. David Smith