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Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by bob1029 on Saturday December 31, 2022 @05:21PM (#34201359)
How infeasible would it be to deploy an HVDC cable that actually connects opposite sides of the moon and sidesteps most of the storage issue? The longest one on earth is 2500km so it seems within the realm.

You could hypothetically split the conductors east/west, eliminating the need for most insulation. Conductors could potentially be deployed from space and stitched together with robots or something.

Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by WalterBright on Saturday December 31, 2022 @05:34PM (#34201444)
The weight of it would be fantastic.
Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by vlovich123 on Saturday December 31, 2022 @05:43PM (#34201527)
The temperature on the dark side of the moon is -130 degrees Celsius. The hottest super conductor we've build is ~-140 degrees Celsius which isn't too far away. I wonder if you can use HVDC to transfer the energy from the light side to the dark side over a shorter distance and then use super conductors to transfer it "for free" all over the dark side...
Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by yyyk on Saturday December 31, 2022 @05:56PM (#34201603)
Just about every solution you can think of is feasible with enough engineering effort. We need to think about what we want to optimize.

We need a solution which involves a logistical tail to Earth as tiny as we can, being very light on the mission [ = don't cost much weight/fuel ], and dealing as little as possible with lunar, and in general non-terrestrial, surfaces [ = less uncertainty, easier to fix] . Your suggestion fails the last two, and probably the first if we ever need to replace the cable (unless someone does come up with those ultra-special robots half of these proposals suggest).

These considerations strongly lean towards external power supply solutions. I hadn't considered the variant the article suggested. Neat, but I suspect it's politically infeasible - all nations on Earth will demand a vote, and just look at climate negotiations to see how long this takes and how expensive this will get.

IMHO, the obvious solution given our tech level involves geostationary satellites, requires no tech beyond our current capabilities, covers 100% of the surface and involves relatively little burden on the mission itself or dealing with non-terrestrial surfaces. If we think anything is at risk of going wrong, we can just launch more satellites.

Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by chinabot on Saturday December 31, 2022 @06:35PM (#34201865)
3400KM is the diameter at the equator, lesser at latitude, I would say do-able once aluminum is available in qty and can be extruded, losses shouldnt be too horrible at 1MV. I like the out of the box thinking here.
Re:Powering the lunar base, version 2 by more_corn on Saturday December 31, 2022 @10:39PM (#34203348)
How about microwave relay instead?