re: #70 windsagio

I thought satellite power was impossible, due to the physics limitations of beaming huge amounts of power from orbit (too much is absorbed into the atmostphere or is lost to the beam spreading).

Is there something somewhere I don’t know about?

They’ve done operational tests of beaming power through 4 miles of sea level atmosphere with reasonable efficiency, this was back in the 80’s. It’s true that the rectenna farm would take a huge space, however refinement in focusing beams probably makes it more feasible now than it was in the 80’s.
There’s also the space tether challenge going on right now, so we will see how that goes. Those are past 2050 initiatives, but if we want them then, we must start researching and engineering now.