Sound like a good headline? I think so too. Scientists at Washington State University recently published a paper, theorizing the creation of a giant "solar sail" that could potentially make our mountain of an energy situation into a molehill.
A solar sail basically harnesses the solar winds constantly blowing through space to generate massive amounts of energy. They "work by pointing a .4-inch-wide copper wire attached to the sail at the sun. This wire, which can be up to half a wire in length, then generates a magnetic field that captures electrons found in solar winds throughout the Solar System. These particles are in turn funneled into a spherical receiver, which then produces a current".
The only obstacle stopping these scientists from setting this potentially earth-shattering innovation into motion is figuring out how to transfer the energy harvested by the solar sail back to earth. But consider the possibilities! We could leave our lights, lamps, computers, phones, laptops, speakers, TVs, Xboxes, Playsations, Dreamcasts, toasters, and electric kitty litter mechanisms on and still not feel guilty!
You may be wondering why you haven't heard of this. So am I. I guess you're an idiot, huh?
Not so! This article was published in the International Journal of Astrobiology where experts in the field no doubt have buzzed with excitement over its possibilities. Apparently though, us everyday Joes could never be interested in the solving of our energy crisis, right? We're too busy thinking about sports and stuff.
It looks like that's what CNN thinks, at least. The very first article I see when visiting the CNN website today is "Phillies' Halladay no-hits Reds in playoff opener". Don't get me wrong, I'm always excited to hear about other Roys' accomplishments, but I think that the possibility of this solar sail holds a little more precedence.
Which leads me to my next point, the media is too busy feeding us largely superficial information about celebrities' boob jobs to take notice of monumental ideas like the solar sail. We need to value information that is actually valuable and part of that is recognizing just how revolutionary our current technology is and how fantastic it would seem even ten years ago.
The Comedian Louis CK says it beautifully in this interview:
Category, By. "Solar Winds Could Provide 100 Billion Times Earth's Energy Needs | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World." Green Design Will save the World | Inhabitat. Web. 07 Oct. 2010. .
Everythings Amazing & Nobodys Happy. Perf. Louis CK, Conan O'Brien. Youtube. 29 Feb. 2009. Web. 6 Oct. 2010. .
I've heard that gold would make a good material for the solar sails
ReplyDeletegold is good for many things
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this, we need to be aware of what technology can do for us and that it can make us smarter, instead of complaining that it takes us 45 seconds to load our facebook page.
ReplyDeleteBut think of the scale of this project, it would take several countries working together for several years to complete. I just don't believe we can pull something like this off yet... yet. But we will a good 40-100 years from now, and it will be awesome. Until then it's a pipe dream.
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ReplyDeleteEverything must begin somewhere, Noah. It always fascinates me how far we seem to be searching and planning into the future. It almost seems like we can't just exist in the "now". Nevertheless, this is certainly a fascinating concept and worth our consideration. Thank you Roy.
ReplyDeleteDerek