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Real Engineering 3 Dec 2025 35 here now

Solar Farms in Space - Reflect Orbital

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Comments (20)

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Props on the IEEE sponsorship. In my work I constantly use them for research and references.
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Isn't this the whole "wait, we can just build solar farms in the Sahara!" thing all over again?
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this would be great for a moonbase
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"What if we got our energy from space?" Bad news friend, we already do that.
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If you have enough infrared lasers it sounds like you could make a death ray from space
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The orbital debris issue is not so easy to ignore.
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I remember Kirk Sorenson talking about this, and his team at university was trying to set the bounds of this being financially feasible, so they set the launch cost to zero, and they still couldn't close the business case.
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@Texas_1985 From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 397
With the current price per kg to orbit, you could build 20 to 40 nuclear reactors just for the cost of moving the hardware of such a station into orbit. That's not include the cost of the solar panels, and the 10km base station you need to setup. Also, 10km base station may not sound like a lot but that is completely impractical in a lot of places where you would want the energy. This idea only makes sense in a world where you can't have nuclear fission for some reason.
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@Chromie84 From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 307
If you are sending electricians into space to maintain this contraption you need to allow for the immense increase of space trash in orbit😂😂😂. Friggin cable ties and wire insulation everywhere😂😂
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@fensoxx From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 125
0:41 Talks about modern cheaper rockets. Shows SLS.
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This channel is becoming kurzgesagt
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@Papa-Raisin From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 869
Crazy idea but i heard nuclear is pretty good
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what if we had a fusion reactor burning hot at safe distance?
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@pseudotasuki From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 1600
Footage of SLS over top of "cheaper heavy-lift rockets" is peak irony.
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For anyone wondering about the IEEE Spectrum sponsor, IEEE are the guys who write the standards that these sort of solar satellites would be designed to
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"Only 30 years away, every 30 years"😂
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"What if we got our energy from space?"
Plants: "Yeah, sure. 'What if?'"
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@Ceastment From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 563
I cannot say how much more impressed I am that you got a sponsorship from IEEE, truly a great organization.
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@mayuna_ From YouTube ↗ 22 Dec 2025 2200
All this for just 8 nuclear reactors 💀 lmao
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What is that painting or piece of art behind you in your recording set-up. Ressembles some kind of acid reaction on material very pretty colors and cool looking !!