zlacker

>>g-mork+(OP)
> it is possible to put 500 to 1000 TW/year of AI satellites into deep space, meaningfully ascend the Kardashev scale and harness a non-trivial percentage of the Sun’s power

We currently make around 1 TW of photovoltaic cells per year, globally. The proposal here is to launch that much to space every 9 hours, complete with attached computers, continuously, from the moon.

edit: Also, this would capture a very trivial percentage of the Sun's power. A few trillionths per year.

>>gok+h4
In fairness, solar cells can be about 5x more efficient in space (irradiance, uptime).

>>moeadh+Lf
Solar cells have exactly the same power rating on earth as in space surely? What would change is their capacity factor and so energy generation.

>>__alex+Oh
Atmospheric derating brings insolation from about 1.367KW/m2 to about 1.0.

And then there’s that pesky night time and those annoying seasons.

It’s still not even remotely reasonable, but it’s definitely much higher in space.

>>Waterl+jq
> And then there’s that pesky night time and those annoying seasons.

The two options there are cluttering up the dawn dusk polar orbit more or going to high earth orbit so that you stay out of the shadow of the earth... and geostationary orbits are also in rather high demand.

>>shagie+Jt
Put them super super far away and focus all the energy into one very narrow death laser that we trust the tech company to be careful with.