The results are in from CalTech's solar-power transmitter.
To collect the power would require a kilometer-scale constellation
- which pieces fit in small(ish) cargo-holds. That's the "DOLCE" side of the mission; this was the hard part. Then there's "ALBA" to determine what sort of powercell works best in space. "MAPLE" is where we beam it since we don't know how George Smith's dead Martians did it.
This scales up power availability out in 1 AU, where we're not allowed to ship up mercury much less an "atomic pile" of your favourite fissile isotopes.
The plan is to power Earth with all this stuff. Not stations in 1-2 AU space, although I'm sure it'd help.
As the future holds: We might be able to pack more cells for future DOLCE.
BACKDATE 1/19
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