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/sci/ - Science & Math

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1551185 No.1551185 [Reply] [Original]

Question:

Would it be possible to create a "ring" of satellites that produce an electric current simply by revolving around the Earth (and thus inducing a current)?

>> No.1551199

lrn2electromagnetism
you'll lose energy and crash

>> No.1551201

Why not just do what Japan has planned already and make a giant orbiting solar power station that can send the energy back to earth? And once that one is up and running as a proof of concept, generating power for Japan, there's no reason why more can't go up.

>> No.1551202

Yes -- but in doing so they would lose velocity and drop out of orbit.

>> No.1551212

>>1551202

Well how do regular satellites manage to maintain velocity then?

>> No.1551227

>>1551212
For one thing, they don't piss it away trying to turn magnetic flux into current.

>> No.1551253

>>1551185
a solid ring of unobtainium would definitely work for this purpose, though

>> No.1551264

Something similar was done on a space station a while back. They dragged a satellite behind the thing as they orbited, but the connecting line snapped.

>> No.1551266

>>1551264
I believe they were trying to do the opposite. They wanted to send current down a long wire to generate thrust.

>> No.1551317

>>1551264
this
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wtether.html