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Letter: Solar relay

Published 3 November 2010

From Geoff Godman

Charles Choi reports on the theoretical Dyson-Harrop satellite, which is designed to capture energy from solar winds, and the problem of transmitting this energy back to Earth (25 September, p 26).

Rather than the concentrated laser beam suggested in the article, could this not be done using a ladder-like array of satellites to pass power back to the Earth? Obviously, the energy losses would be immense, but with the staggering power generated by the Dyson-Harrop set-up, this would not appear to be a problem.

London, UK

Issue no. 2785 published 6 November 2010

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