ProductGPT
Try the custom AI to help you find products that Reddit loves.
Solar power satellites, should we ever field any, are going to use solar cells much like whatever the cutting edge is at the time. Solar cells produce a flow of electrons from whatever wavelengths of light they’re capable of reacting to—not just microwaves. The energy would be beamed to the ground in whatever frequency of electromagnetic radiation makes sense. It might be microwaves. It might not.
The reason for putting a satellite in orbit is the atmosphere reduces incoming solar radiation across a range of frequencies. Again, not just microwaves.
I’m not sure why you’re bringing transformers and capacitors into this. You don’t introduce circuitry you don’t need as this results in energy lost as heat. The current produced by solar cells is direct current. It can go straight into a battery (or a capacitor) but for this application, would almost certainly go directly from the solar cells to whatever apparatus is beaming energy to a ground station. Every time you transform the energy in some way, there will be losses.
Sure, the energy beamed to Earth might be used to provide the heat for a boiler that ultimately drives a steam turbine. That’s the easy part, we already do this with a number of different heat sources (coal, natural gas, geothermal, and nuclear).
I’m not sure why you think fusion is about photons and collecting solar energy. If we crack the problem of practical fusion energy, the reason for putting power satellites in orbit almost certain goes away. A fusion reactor on the ground won’t be as difficult maintain.
I would recommend you give this a look:
The real problem is people who come here asking for “help with the science” who then make it abundantly clear all they really want is help setting up their double-talk or “treknobabble” generator.
If someone actually wants to bone up a little, I recommend the following:
You’ve already got some competition:
Believable characters, interesting plot, and scientific plausibility.
Also:
This may help:
You might start with this book:
I frequently recommend this book to would-be science fiction authors who don’t come from a STEM background:
Here’s a book I’ve recommended before:
Check out this neat little find I stumbled on a few years ago, big help in my own writing: Putting the Science in Fiction
I usually recommend this book to would-be writers, but it might help you, too:
Here is a book that can help you with multiple issues of scientific plausibility:
No, but this book also speaks to that:
Maybe you should start here:
<em>Putting the Science in Fiction</em>
In particular, part 5, “Things To Know For When Skynet Takes Over,” chapters 32 through 38.