New answers tagged sunlight
2
Here's an example of how many elements allows you to plausible handwave and get your gorgeous orange-red plants. Feel free to invent others, it's really only an exercise of imagination.
It is true that K-Type peak spectral emission is in red-very near IR, but let's start waving our hands:
there's a non-trivial amount of light in the upper spectrum too. ...
2
There was a 2007 study on alien plant colors: https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2007/2007_Kiang_ki09000a.pdf.
The author's conclusions are that terrestrial plants would likely absorb more light in the peak wavelengths of the star. Plants on a planet orbiting a K-type star would likely absorb light in the redder part of the visible light spectrum and hence ...
2
In theory, ideal leaves would be black, to absorb as much light as possible. The fact that they're green, because chlorophyll was what nature stubled on, ought to tell you all you really need.
If you want to go further though, look at why there is such an incredible diversity of earth flora colours and the pressures driving than. And call foliage colours ...
6
Taking a bunch of information from https://www.firsttheseedfoundation.org/resource/tomatosphere/background/sunlight-mars-enough-light-mars-grow-tomatoes/
It looks like Mars receives about 590 W/m2 solar irradiance at the surface but Earth gets 1000 W/m2 so we're at 59% (almost 2/3).
Mars can get as low as -200°F but as high as 80°F(-130 to +25°C) so we ...
1
Synthesize antimatter in space.
Transmission of power is near future SF and well and good; yes, yes. Goldeneye and all. Tesla.
Another option would be to lock the energy into a portable form and bring chunks of it home. This is akin to liquefied natural gas or other concentrated energy sources that are more portable and less dangerous for being ...
1
A simple one would be to use an orbiting swarm of mirrors.
The angle of the mirrors could be adjusted to reflect 'natural' sunlight towards earth, where it could be captured for use.
This would be the simplest method, as the satellites would be relatively easy to manufacture so you could mass produce them. They would also be simple to operate and have ...
5
EM Radiation
Collect energy
Use energy to shoot lasers towards Earth
Use dish antennas to catch laser energy
???
Profit
Don't believe me just because I'm saying this. NASA and JAXA have made some baby steps in that direction. And anyway any Dyson sphere that sends its energy elsewhere is based on this idea.
Also, don't worry about dying from being shot ...
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You've missed the whole point of a dyson sphere
There are no planets to transfer the energy to. A dyson sphere would have a living space equivalent to around 550,000,000 times the surface of the Earth.
The variant of the Dyson sphere most often depicted in fiction is the "Dyson shell": a uniform solid shell of matter around the star. Such a structure ...
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