Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into Orbit

Re:Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into ... by LarryMullins on Thursday January 05, 2023 @04:27PM (#34266872)

Laying ten thousand kilometers of cable to loop around the moon sounds like a huge undertaking, even if you've got a rocket that can bring the cable there.

What would the cable layer look like? A huge robotic rover? Could you get all 10,000 km onto one spool, or deliver new spools to it?

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Re:Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into ... by ben_w on Friday January 06, 2023 @04:28AM (#34272732)

I doubt this is a good guess, given I'm neither a civil engineer nor a space engineer, but my guess would be it would look like a machine for laying a railway.

It's a Starship-scale project: something like 100 launches, which is only feasible because Starship is targeting such low launch costs.

I don't know (see previous disclaimer) but I wouldn't be surprised if (assuming circumlunar power is even the chosen solution) this is done by sending up an aluminium factory instead and processing regolith.

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