Transmitting energy from the upper part of a space fountain using the stream of rotating masses

Imagine we have a sufficiently tall space fountain positioned at either of the Earth's poles, such that the upper station is permanently within view of the sun. A large array of solar panels could be connected to that upper station to provide a very consistent source of energy.

The challenge with this idea is the problem of most space-based solar - how do you get energy to where it's needed on the ground. I'm wondering if it might be possible to use the rotating masses that support the station to transmit the energy it produces (and whether doing so is superior in efficiency and/or ease of implementation to lasers + photovoltaics).

Traditionally with a space fountain the stream of masses are accelerated back up to speed at the base station. If instead we wish to do the accelerating at the top, we can have each mass launched upwards with just enough force to reach the upper station, and then accelerate it around and down fast enough to balance the force of gravity. At the bottom of the cycle, we leech energy out of the masses instead of boosting them, leaving just enough for them to make it back to the station.

In actuality there would probably be multiple streams of masses to increase the transmission capacity and avoid putting a net torque on the station, but I'm not worried about implementations details at the moment - just whether the system would work as described and whether or not it's obviously bad in some way I've overlooked.

posted over 4 years ago

666lumberjack‭

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