Back on topic: if they are planning serious space trips, it should be done in steps. First permanent space stations orbiting the earth, then some orbiting the moon, stations on the moon's surface and only after that, stations on othe planets.

"wow" weapons aside, what about Global Communications and everything that depends upon it, or GPS...

Travel, Shipping, Rescue, Weather hell the Global economy would falter for an extremely long time and fall hard enough I question if it would be able to get back up without those who hold control of the Sat's did not allow it.

Technological Hostages, a whole freaking planet... ( might seem a bit extreme, but if you really go through the lists, it would be the way to hold the world at a stand still if even for only a short period of time such as a few months up to whenever people could take back control, if they ever could )

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Well if you think about positioning Mirrors, Collectors and Beam Space side which would stay in Sun light 24/7 none stop and Collectors planet side as a first step. Power would be a moot issue once it was achieved, naturally it would evolve and other sources would come about. But that is something that they should be able to do and only funding and time would really be the issue. Of course the Energy Industries would throw a fit and hold it up forever and a day because they would want, no, demand to sap the planet of as much Oil and Coal as they could before their profits from the plants and such were cut off.

but, mmm, yeah it is an interesting and thought provoking subject which spawns many others

There have been concepts available for some time for putting a huge solar array on the day-side of the moon, and then sending the energy back down in the form of a microwave 'beam', but the thought is scary.

If I am not mistaken that is what used to get loose on me during Sim City 2000 and cut huge swaths through my city.

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Attacking satillites is a really scary thing. I forget what they effect is called, but at the moment there are enough orbiting objects that if one were to splinter, slamming into another, it could cause a chain reaction. The resulting billiard game would leave such a 'shell' of debris that it would take untold effort to get back out into space again.

If anyone did start busting satillites for fun or profit, they'd have to just tip them into the atmosphere, and not explode them. Kind of scary, though, considering how much now depends on them. I have a feeling that is why the EU is so interested in having their own.

all i know is that its a lot more now then it was a hundred years ago

what I think he meant was put the arrays on the side of the moon that faces earth. the moon doesn't spin around its axis so one side of the moon is always facing earth. if you give the arrays the ability to change their angle they could focus the suns power to earth most of the time. the exception would come when the moon is between the earth and sun.

Nah, it is my understanding that while the moon rotates, it does so at a rate that it always presents the same "face" to a particular position on the earth. Sure, if the US had an array it wouldn't be able to beam energy to, say, Bulgaria, but once it returned over our heads the array would be rotated back into position. By "dark" or "night" side, people mean the side that you won't be able to see at a partular spot in the world.

Here's a description: http://www.jimloy.com/astro/moon4.htm

Kona: nope, I think a lunar day is something like 27 days.

It's confusing. If anyone has contrary material pipe up.



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Moonn's rotation as viewed from earth is zero, I agree, which is useful for beaming down power to earth. Solar collectors would recive power only once a while, however, unless either array exends all way around moon, or the collectors is movable.

HMM oh yeah earth's face DOES rotate when you're standing on moon and watching earth.

I guess only possible way to beam power would be once a while, when station on earth is within view. Of course, when it's at edge, power beam would be getting trough a lot of air. Air can also deflect a little, depending on what type of power it is.
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I was actually hashing it out in my head when I figured what they hey and did some digging...

following link is from a story ran Aug, 11, 2003...
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ssp-03b.html

solar energy on Earth and in space might be the first large scale space industry

by Arthur Smith New York - Aug 11, 2003 Energy policy is in the news again, with debates in Congress, statements from presidential candidates, consternation over our dependence on the Middle East for oil, and a California recall election traceable in part to energy supply problems for that state. Use of energy, whether fuel for transportation, electrical energy running the internet, or the destructive energy released in weapons, is central to our economy and security. It is with good reason that the technical term for energy use per unit time, "power", suggests control in the human world as well. Three actions taken now - working to reserve radio spectrum for power transmission, focusing on reductions in costs for space launch, and investing in space solar power system research - hold the promise of opening up vast new sources of power within the next 10-15 years

I go to the moon all the time.

what..... you don't?

Oooo

Okay here is an interesting read about the conspiracies i brought up from the show i watched. He basically gives a good argument against what the doubters brought up. I'm not sure if we did or not. There were a lot of good questions brought up in the show. Keep in mind we were in the middle of the cold war with the Soviets and we needed "the moon" as a morale booster. Anyway i'm conflicted about what i think but this webpage will give you what conspiracy theorists believe and what this one guy believes. Some of his arguments are just as speculative as the theorists.

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/ConspiracyTheoryDidWeGototheMoon.htm

very interesting article. I think this statement pretty much confirms that we did go to the moon, at least in my mind.

If the Russians detected fakery they could simply have invited journalists and scientists to listen in on the next mission. It would have been their biggest propaganda strike ever. And then there are the British, the French, the Japanese, the Chinese ....