Japanese company proposes to transfer solar energy from the moon

The unusual concept of LUNA RING of the Japanese Shimizu Corporation suggests using solar energy collected by the Earth’s natural satellite using solar panels and transmitting it to the Earth using microwave or laser radiation. According to the company's forecast, the energy obtained in this way will be able to cover planetary needs even taking into account their increase by 2030 (the estimate is 13,000 terawatts) - the theoretical time for the concept to be implemented.

Strictly speaking, we are talking about the idea of ​​encircling the moon at the equator with a solar network of about 11,000 km long and with varying widths from several kilometers to 400. This will make it possible to use solar energy in the most efficient way, given the lack of atmosphere at the moon and the scale of the potential battery network .



Fully aware of the technical complexity of the enterprise, the company names the following advantages of LUNA RING. On the one hand, a space flight to the moon is not comparable in cost (both technical and financial) with relatively long-distance space flights - to Mars, for example. At the same time, if the concept allows organizing the automatic production of auxiliary materials required for construction using autonomous or controlled robots, frequent space flights may become completely unnecessary. For example, the processing of lunar soil using special aggregates (which, of course, will also have to be delivered and assembled on the Moon) will allow you to get water, ceramic materials, glass, oxygen, cement, as well as material for the solar panels themselves, right on the spot.

The creators offer this as an illustration of their last thought:



What will happen on Earth?

Special emitting antennas installed on the lunar surface with a diameter of 20 km will transmit energy in the form of microwave radiation with a frequency of 20 GHz, received on Earth by specially constructed stations (which can be floating, taking into account their size - about 2 km.) - energy loss at such a frequency will be only 2%. A diagram of this process is shown in the figure below:



A pdf document with quality illustrations is available here .

On the video concept LUNA RING can be seen below:



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