Spanish Banner: Intercambio de Enlaces
Spanish Banner: Intercambio de Enlaces.

Safety First



"The closer we bring the pods to the planet, the more energy we will transmit to the receiving station."
"I thought the beam of energy was focused, and that it all would hit the receiver regardless of the distance of transmission. Are we playing with a laser, or a flashlight?"
"When I say close, I don't mean we have to be just above the level at which planes fly. But I would like to be about as close as the orbit of the moon. The solar system is loaded filthy with particulate matter, and even though we are going to park the pods in the wake of the planet's path around the sun, there is a distance beyond which we would lose a considerable amount of the energy we gathered to microscopic space debris."
She showed a picture that illustrated the increasing density of particulate matter around the earth. Several different pods were shown at various distances, and underneath each pod was an estimate of the percent of energy transmitted that would be lost.
"Well, we've evacuated the entire island of Corsica."
"Do we have any idea how much damage would be done if one of those spheres landed in Paris, and then exploded?"
"If by 'explode', you mean to liberate all the potential energy simultaneously, I can give that number to a friend who can use have his computer simulate your explosion. To use our bicycle analogy, you are asking what will happen if the rider falls off the cliff. Well for that to happen, there has to be cliff at the top to fall over. No such cliff exists because we built the mountain."


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