This is the solar power you need to mine ore at Vall

[Scotius]

MKS has bits that do that in the next release, tho that's limited to a 2KM range as well as local connectionless transfers for converters and such

Yay! Say, would it be possible to tweak a bit range values (for private use only, of course) so a plant in high orbit could still beam the power to the surface?

[mikegarrison]

Sooo, RoverDude...any plans of adding Microwave Power Transmitters? I would love to build solar powerplants in orbits and beam the clean, free power everywhere its needed

Granted, Interstellar mod does have this function, but FractalUK apparently abandoned it (though some guys apparently picked up the ball). And Interstellar is a mammoth of a mod, pushing my game dangerously close to breaking.

Any beamed power tends to fall off with r^2. So it's still not a great candidate for deep space, assuming you power it from back at Kerbin.

If Trojan points existed in KSP, I suppose you could stick a huge solar collection plant in a Jool trojan, then beam power from it to different parts of the Jool system.

Or you could take the 2010 approach and just turn Jool into a star....

Edited June 12, 2015 by mikegarrison

[Jarin]

Yay! Say, would it be possible to tweak a bit range values (for private use only, of course) so a plant in high orbit could still beam the power to the surface?

I suspect you'd still be limited to physics distance, regardless of tweaking.

[AbacusWizard]

Any beamed power tends to fall off with r^2.

If it's spreading out in three dimensions, yes; what if you focus it into a narrow coherent beam?

[mikegarrison]

If it's spreading out in three dimensions, yes; what if you focus it into a narrow coherent beam?

I think that over such large distances it still falls off with r^2 because no beam is so narrow and coherent that it has zero spreading loss. But you don't waste a bunch of your power shooting it out in non-useful directions, so it has that going for it.

[AbacusWizard]

That's true; it is still spreading out three-dimensionally, so even if the spreading is very small it's still decreasing with r^2. I guess the difference would be that intensity at distance r would be P/[f*4Àr^2] instead of P/[4Àr^2], where f is the fraction of the full sphere that the beam is limited to--proportionally more power than a full spherical spread but still decreasing by inverse square law, so the net effect would be equivalent to a full spherical spread with (1/f) times more power.

[11of10]

Then you can make a nuclear powered mothership with landers that work on beamed power, eh? Sounds nice actually!

[AbacusWizard]

Of course that just means you need to build a receiver dish that is (r^2) times larger than the power transmitter. Sounds like Kerbal engineering to me.

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Then you can make a nuclear powered mothership with landers that work on beamed power, eh? Sounds nice actually!

For electrical power supply, yes; of course the lander still needs its own reaction mass to shoot out the rocket jets. The one difficulty would be that the mothership would have to be in synchronous orbit over the lander's position (or carry around two or three small power relay satellites to guarantee full coverage). Which also sounds like Kerbal engineering. Or perhaps an unholy hybrid of Nicola Tesla and Arthur C. Clarke. Which would be awesome.

[RocketPilot573]

Or you can just exit to KSC and timewarp a bit. I assume the amount of charge you have is not simulated.

Kudos to the devs if I am wrong.

[mikegarrison]

Of course that just means you need to build a receiver dish that is (r^2) times larger than the power transmitter. Sounds like Kerbal engineering to me.

- - - Updated - - -

For electrical power supply, yes; of course the lander still needs its own reaction mass to shoot out the rocket jets. The one difficulty would be that the mothership would have to be in synchronous orbit over the lander's position (or carry around two or three small power relay satellites to guarantee full coverage). Which also sounds like Kerbal engineering. Or perhaps an unholy hybrid of Nicola Tesla and Arthur C. Clarke. Which would be awesome.

Ever read the story Microcosmic God? I think I just realized where Kerbals came from!

[11of10]

For electrical power supply, yes; of course the lander still needs its own reaction mass to shoot out the rocket jets. The one difficulty would be that the mothership would have to be in synchronous orbit over the lander's position (or carry around two or three small power relay satellites to guarantee full coverage). Which also sounds like Kerbal engineering. Or perhaps an unholy hybrid of Nicola Tesla and Arthur C. Clarke. Which would be awesome.

Actually with KSPI you could probably use beamed power for atmospheric flight. And I did have in mind 3 relay sats. However, I never really got to it in two years of playing xD.

Anyway, what unholy hybrid of Tesla and Clarke you have in mind? Comsat with microwave power relay?

[AbacusWizard]

Yeah, pretty much. Wireless power transmission from Tesla and array of relay satellites in synchronous orbit from Clarke.