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[Il Palazzo]

I wonder how that satellite design works against the push from the wind it is catching. That's honestly one of the big problems you run into with "capture the solar wind" ideas, the fact that the solar wind actually exerts a physical pressure, so if you don't provide some sort of counterforce to it (be that through rocket fuel burning or whatever) then your satellite won't be able to remain in a stationary location and thus will slip out of alignment.

You put it deeper in the gravity well, so that the extra push is just enough to keep it in a stable orbit.

(that's orbit around the Sun, so for Earth applications this limits it to Lagrangian points)

[i2amroy]

That makes sense, though since that would require you going rather closer to the sun it probably make the idea of power transmission a fair bit more difficult I would think (since if you put it on the far side of the earth then it would end up always being sheltered by the Earth from the very wind you were trying to harness).

[Avis-Mergulus]

Yessss. I just finished more than three hours of fucking annoying Praat markup (it's a thing for an audio corpus where text transcript fragments have to be mapped to the actual audio) and I am so free. I swear if I see another goddamn textgrid anywhere I'm gonna flip.
It's just that sort of tedious as hell work that can't be done by a robot, so they use an undergrad student to do it. And I just so happened to be the student in question. But no longer am I their slave, I say!

[Il Palazzo]

That makes sense, though since that would require you going rather closer to the sun it probably make the idea of power transmission a fair bit more difficult I would think (since if you put it on the far side of the earth then it would end up always being sheltered by the Earth from the very wind you were trying to harness).

Not necessarily - I know there is a type of orbits called Lyapunov orbits used for L2 insertions, that keep the satellites oscillating in a circular fashion, where the plane of the circle is perpendicular to the direction to Earth. Depending on the amplitude of the oscillations, you can make the satellite stay clear of the shadow.
There are, after all, solar-powered satellites in L2.

However, if that's solar wind and not just solar rays that's supposed to power the thing, then it might get deflected by Earth's magnetic field much farther than the extent of shadow. Or not. I don't know much about this subject, or if you can make a Lyapunov orbit with sufficiently large oscillations for that not to matter.

[Culise]

A D-H satellite is powered by the electrons in the solar wind, and would need to be located beyond Earth's magnetosphere, but yes, a Lissajous or Lyapunov orbit would maintain a dynamic equilibrium.  Hypothetically, it can maintain its orbit against radiation pressure and the momentum imparted by the manner in which it gathers power (electron deflection; compare to the related electric sail) by engineering it so that the two forces counterbalance against the solar gravity, or by adding a solar sail as well to give it an oscillatory "tack", or by simply via either of the orbital types above.  The major problems seem to be basically two-fold: the first is that we have yet to build a proper statite, and the second is that beamed power over extremely long ranges is trapped, efficiency-wise, by the physical properties of diffraction.  The most practical method is probably not an IR beam straight to the surface as outlined in that link, which runs foul of the inefficiency of a low-wavelength beam and the possibility of Earth shadowing, but rather a microwave (or higher) beam to a HEO transceiver constellation which rebroadcasts to the surface using frequencies that can pass through the atmosphere without being significant absorption such as IR.  There's also solar degradation, which is not inconsiderable by any measure, but satellites like SOHO have continued to function for almost two decades, which suggests that it's not serious enough to consider in the near term. 

[KingofstarrySkies]

Prison Architect updated. Update just finished. EEEEEEE

[pisskop]

I used audacity to make musics ^o^

[TD1]

Started my course in Latin today. Quite interesting. Caesar was a Kaiser. Hehe.

[Helgoland]

Caesar was a Kaiser.

Wanna hear something fun? Even Germans pronounce Caesar the wrong way.

[Akura]

Trust me, there's a lot of words in the English language that derive from Latin like that. Despite English being a German language.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Caesar was a Kaiser.

Wanna hear something fun? Even Germans pronounce Caesar the wrong way.

The Russian word "Czar" is also derived from Caesar, if we're doing Fun Caesar Facts Monday.

[Il Palazzo]

Caesar was a Kaiser.

Wanna hear something fun? Even Germans pronounce Caesar the wrong way.

The Russian word "Czar" is also derived from Caesar, if we're doing Fun Caesar Facts Monday.

I believe the comment was not about the origins, but about the pronunciation. The modern pronunciation of Caesar differs from the one likely used by Romans at his time, which was very similar to how Kaiser sounds.

[Orange Wizard]

Caesar salad is not of Roman origin.

[Frumple]

... I'm pretty sure there's a terrible joke disagreeing with that statement that involves virgin olives, somewhere in there.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Caesar was a Kaiser.

Wanna hear something fun? Even Germans pronounce Caesar the wrong way.

The Russian word "Czar" is also derived from Caesar, if we're doing Fun Caesar Facts Monday.

I believe the comment was not about the origins, but about the pronunciation. The modern pronunciation of Caesar differs from the one likely used by Romans at his time, which was very similar to how Kaiser sounds.

Oh, comparative linguistics. Sorry, I understand, I just felt like Caesar Fun Facts Monday.