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Geruchsbrot t1_jaiqjtf wrote

If have a weird idea locked in my head for a few days now and it's kinda speculative.

Let's assume its possible to set up an array of scalable mirrors or prisms relatively close to the sun. The goal is creating a focused beam of sunlight.

  1. Which body in our solar system would be the best candidate to point the ray on if you want a long or constant target to aim this beam at?

  2. How big would the mirror array / prisms have to be to realize it? (I'm aware it might depend on the distance towards the sun, but maybe theres a "sweet spot" when you have a designated target)

  3. Would the beam be visible to the human eyes?

Maybe someone around here can help me clean my head up by answering this.

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Indemnity4 t1_jak392q wrote

Space based solar power.

Ideally, you would point it at Earth and sell solar energy. Or point it at a solar panel to convert it to microwave frequency as beam that at a receiver on Earth to sell electricity.

Probably not visible to people. Depends how you build it, but for maximum efficiency you will be using a very tightly focussed beam.

Just like your laser pointer is making light using a LED, you can also have a visible light laser. You can only see the laser pointer side on if it passes through some particular like smoke, that bounce the light towards your eyes.

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