Page 1

WORLD-SAVING VIA ORBITAL MILLENNIUM TECH

THE ARCHIMEDEAN ORBITAL SOLAR POWER SYSTEM USING LECSO* FOR SUPPLANTING & MULTIPLYING ALL PRESENT SOURCES ON EARTH *Liquid Epihydrostatical Capillary Space Optics
Jan. 29, 2008

By J.H. Bloomer. Copyright 2008 By J.H. Bloomer

ABSTRACT
Lasers not needed! Incoherent solar light should be fully adequate. My optical satellites (two 2-satellite units) will orbit the sun, not earth, in earths orbital path, one unit just ahead, the other just behind earth. Each will consist of a (holed) plane MIRROR, AND A (same large diameter) paraboloidal mirror. The plane mirror is at 45o with respect to the orbital path, and sends its beam in the opposite direction of earth, to illuminate the paraboloidal mirror. The latter focuses its reflected beam toward earth, through the hole, onto the top of an 80,000-ft.-tall beanstalk over the North Pole, for six months. Then the other 2-satellite unit takes over (focuses on the top of the beanstalk over the North Pole). My beanstalk sits above the Pole, and on the flat balloon atop it is either a sea of solar cells or a plane mirror to divert the beam to such a sea at the beanstalk foot on the ocean surface. Or, the beam is directed to ordinary boilers and dynamos at the beanstalk foot on the ocean surface. My mirrors are self-formed in space from containers of liquids spread to a certain depth on unfurled plastic sheets.

Energy is money. Enriching all mortals beyond their wildest dreams is a matter of supplying them with limitless energy. The sun produces limitless energy. Heres how to bring it to earth. ITS ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS (a la Archimedes): Archimedes of antiquity, great Greek mathematician & scientist, of course, was called on by his fellow Syracusans in the Roman siege of his native Syracuse, to devise solar mirrors to concentrate the rays of the sun on the Roman ships in the harbor, and so set them on fire, which he proceeded to do! (the Syracusans lost the war anyway, and Archimedes was killed when he disobeyed a Roman soldier who ordered him to stop drawing figures in the sand.) Briefly, total of all sources of utility power on earth today (hydro-power, coal-and-oil-burning dynamos, nuclear power stations, autotrucks, etc.) may amount to only about 15 terawatts (15 trillion watts). My system would supply us with four times that much (for starters) if desired.

Page 2

Like Archimedes, Id use mirrors huge mirrors, to concentrate the rays of the sun. But Id mount my mirrors on satellites in orbit. These mirrors would roll around the sun, in earths own orbit, just like the earth. But unlike the earth, they wouldnt spin around every 24 hours. They would spin around once in exactly one year. Why? Because these mirrors one just ahead of earth, in earths orbit (see FIG. II), and the other just behind earth, also in earths own orbit (see FIG. I), would always focus the rays of the sun (from 93 million miles away), down on a beanstalk-top, 80,000 ft. above a power station on earth, on the sea, AT THE NORTH POLE! Since these mirrors always point their beams at a beanstalk-top above the North Pole, that takes one year to travel in a circle around the sun, each beam turns through exactly 360 degrees in one years time. But why two, 2-mirror, satellite units? And two beams? The earths axis is titled 23 degrees from straight -up-and-down, to the plane of its orbit around the sun. THIS IS WHAT CREATES OUR SEASONS: But the axis of the earth always points at the same star, even while the earth itself rolls around the sun (completing a complete circuit in one year). How are seasons created? As the earth rolls around the sun, on June 21 its 23o-titled axis (which of course is fixedly pointing at a single star), is inclined most toward the sun. This means that, at that time, we in America receive the most direct rays of the sun, and the days are the longest. The result is summer. FIG. I TRAILING MIRRORS ORBITAL HISTORY Trailing Paraboloidal Mirror

North Pole

Focus Blocked By Earth

Sept. 21

Reflected, Concentrated Beam From Solar Rays

Dec. 21

SUN

June 21

Earth Orbit March 21 23o

Earth globe rendering by NASA

21

Page 3

FIG. II

PRECEDING MIRRORS ORBITAL HISTORY North Pole

Earth Orbit Sept. 21 Reflected, Concentrated Beam From Solar Rays SUN June 21

Preceding Paraboloidal Mirror

Dec. 21

March 21

21

Focus Blocked By Earth

23o

Earth globe rendering by NASA

FIG. III

PRECEDING MIRROR (DUAL) SYSTEM ON SEPT. 21 Earths Orbit Of Sun

SUN Sea of Solar Cells or Plane Mirror to Divert Focus to Surface Sea Beanstalk Earth Axis EARTH

Focused Beam

Hole in Plane Mirror

Plane Mirror @ 45o To Orbital Path, To Divert Solar Rays To Paraboloidal Mirror

Paraboloidal Mirror To Focus Reflected Solar Rays on North Poles BeanStalks Sea of Solar Cells or Plane Mirror

Page 4

FIG. IV TO SOLAR-CELL SEA (DISCPLANFORM BALLOON @ 80,000 FT. ALTITUDE

BEANSTALK

A WEATHERVANE/AEROFAIRING SLEEVE (HELIUM BALLOON 500-LONG SECTION)

SWIVEL BEARING

NOTE I: SECTION WILL ALIGN ITSELF WITH PREVAILING WIND AT THAT ALTITUDE; AERODYNAMIC FAIRING OFFERS 1/40TH THE DRAG THAT ROUND UMBILICAL OF IDENTICAL FRONTAL (WIND-DIRECTION) PROJECTED AREA, WOULD OFFER NOTE II: EACH SECTION IS PRESSURIZED WITH HELIUM & FITTED AT EACH END W/ A HELIUM-TIGHT BEARING AROUND THE UMBILICAL, THUS EACH SECTION ACTS LIKE A MINIATURE HELIUM BALLOON NOTE III: BEARING-RING WASHER (EACH) HARDMOUNTED TO UMBILICAL (CF., WELDED); THUS EACH SECTION SUPPORTS WEIGHT OF LENGTH OF UMBILICAL PASSING THROUGH THAT SECTION

SECTION AA Wind direction SLEEVE BEARING UMBILICAL PACKING (HOLDS 2 COPPER WIRES)

CHORD CHORD/4 = AERODYNAMIC CENTER

UMBILICAL-SUPPORT BEARING (MOUNTED IN BALLOON)

SURFACE

BEANSTALK UMBILICAL WITH AERODYNAMIC SHROUD -Copyright 2000 by DISCRAFT Corp.-

Page 5

But when the earth has rolled exactly 180o further in its orbit around the sun, on December 21st, its axis is inclined most away from the sun. This means that we in America receive the most indirect rays of the sun, and the days are the shortest. The result is winter. All right, but what does this have to do with mirror satellite-pairs to shine concentrated solar rays out to an energy-collecting station 80,000-ft. above the (ocean) surface at the North Pole? On June 21, the trailing mirror-pair satellite, in earths orbit, which always points (or tries to point) its concentrated, reflected solar beam at the beanstalk-top 80,000-ft. above the North Pole, has just concluded six months during which its beam rotated 180 o in direction, BUT STILL ALWAYS POINTED THAT BEAM EXACTLY AT THE BEANSTALK-TOP ABOVE THE NORTH POLE! However, after June 21, the beam from the trailing satellites solar-concentrating mirror, is increasingly obstructed by the earth itself, due to the earths fixed 23o tilt (pointing always at a single star), such that the earth itself increasingly blocks off the focused beam from the paraboloidal satellite mirror, and prevents it from reaching the beanstalk-top above the North Pole. This is true for the trailing mirror-satellite pair. But the preceding MIRROR-SATELLITE PAIR, STARTS TO COME INTO ITS OWN, on June 21: its concentrated beam, from June 21 on, strikes the beanstalk-top above the North Pole more and more directly, until on Sept. 21, its beam strikes the beanstalk-top above the North Pole most directly (i.e., with a minimum path through the atmosphere). Then on Dec. 21, the preceding mirror-pair satellite has to send its focused beam through a maximum atmospheric path to the beanstalk-top 80,000-ft. above the North Pole, until rather soon - it is blocked completely by the earth itself, from sending its focus to the beanstalk-top above the North Pole. Of course, at that point, the trailing mirror-pair satellite, is permitted to more and more directly point its beam at the beanstalk-top above the North Pole, until March 21, when its beam is most directly focused on the beanstalk-top above the North Pole (i.e., when the beam enjoys a minimum path through the atmosphere). Then, of course, the whole cycle repeats itself, again, and again, and again. HOW CAN MIRRORS THIS LARGE AND THIS HIGH-PRECISION, BE ECONOMICALLY BOOSTED TO ORBIT OR ECONOMICALLY FABRICATED THERE, AND ECONOMICALLY BUILT IN THE FIRST PLACE? Astronomical-quality mirrors on earth, for example, say for large telescopes (which is the kind of quality needed here), regularly increase in cost by the fourth power of the diameter. This factor portends a horrendous cost for conventional mirrors large enough to handle significant solar energy, even without cost of the boost to orbit. However, my Sixties invention of (variational-calculus-based) LIQUID SPACE OPTICS predicts orders-ofmagnitude (100 or 1000 times or more) improvement in cost of precision (astronomical-quality), very large (hundreds or thousands of ft. diameter) orbital plane or paraboloidal mirrors, via self-spread, very

Page 6

shallow, liquid pools (mirrors), fixed in shape and placement by surface chemistry (branch of physical science). The kinds of mirror satellites I envision as I mentioned, for the above application, are respectively twostage, with the first stage being a large, free-liquid-surface, plane (or flat) mirror (with a large hole in center), oriented always at 45o from the direction of the sun, as it orbits the sun (see illustration FIG. III). For the trailing satellite-pair, this plane mirror is oriented to throw its reflected solar beam backwards, away from the earth, to illuminate another, earth-path-following, free-liquid-surface mirror, but a paraboloidal one, with axis oriented always to focus its reflected beam forward on the beanstalk-top above the North Pole. For the preceding satellite-pair, this plane mirror is oriented to throw its reflected solar beam forward, away from earth, to illuminate another, earth-path-following, free-liquid-surface mirror, but a paraboloidal one, with axis oriented to focus its reflected beam always backward, through the plane mirrors hole, onto on the beanstalk-top above the North Pole. The receptor of these focused beams (see Beanstalk illustration, FIG. IV), is either a sea of solar cells occupying the flat surface of a round, flat, pancake-shaped, large helium balloon atop the beanstalk, or it is a large, flat, plane mirror atop the beanstalk, which is oriented to divert t he concentrated beam down to the base on the ocean, which contains ordinary boilers and dynamos. In the latter case, of course, the large plane mirror atop the beanstalk is mounted on (against) the large, flat helium balloon, in lieu of the sea of solar cells. Each orbital plane mirror illuminates a paraboloidal mirror, of the same diameter size, also in earths orbital path. These paraboloidal mirrors respectively focus the associated plane mirrors intersected beam ahead or back (as required), through the associated plane mirrors large central hole, onto a backward rotating, 24-hour-period, flat-balloon-supported plane mirror or sea of solar cells atop the multipleballoon-supported beanstalk (of my earlier invention), above the North Pole. Power is carried either by wires from the 80,000-ft.-high solar-cell-sea, or by the reflected beam down to a station of boilers-and-dynamos at the beanstalks base on the Arctic Ocean. From the North-Pole ocean-surface-station beneath the beanstalk, power is distributed all over earth in standard grids, by heavily-insulated high-tension cables, submerged to great depths in the ocean itself, AND CONNECTED TO EXISTING GLOBAL POWER-DISTRIBUTION STATIONS IN VARIOUS NATIONS. The North Pole is chosen (although the South Pole would be equally attractive for receiving the preceding/trailing satellite beams for, respectively, six months of the year), for two reasons: I) North Pole is closer to most major industrial nations, or power-consumers; II) Running high-tension cables IN ALL DIRECTIONS ON OR UNDER THE ICE from a sub-beanstalk power station located at the South Pole, would engineering-wise be far more expensive than running the same cables under the ocean surface from the North Pole.

Page 7

THE GREAT ADVANTAGE OF THE PRESENT PROPOSED SYSTEM, OVER ALL PREVIOUS PROPOSED SUCH SYSTEMS (ALL USING MY SUPER-LOWCOST, SUPER-PRECISION, LIQUID SPACE OPTICS), IS THAT, EVIDENTLY, NO ORBITAL LASERS ARE REQUIRED; IT APPEARS THAT THIS ENTIRE (PRESENT) SYSTEM, CAN BE BASED ON ORDINARY SOLAR (INCOHERENT) LIGHT! THE COST SAVING (IN INVESTMENT) WILL THEREBY BE ANOTHER SEVERAL ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE (I.E., 100 OR 1000 TIMES!) But much work must be done by astronauts in orbit of the sun or well outside the Van Allen belts. Ralph Ren, in NASA MOONED AMERICA, has shown that Apollo must have been accomplished by an entirely different system than claimed, as astronauts could not even have survived briefly in the lethal radiation levels outside the Van Allen belts. This judgement is confirmed by standard cislunar radiation science. However, an exponential approach to creating larger & larger examples of my solar-energy-based, coherent-beam-supplied spacecraft, should end by providing sufficient radiation-protection for astronauts working totally outside the Van Allen belts (for example, with adequate lead shielding).

END