Europe, Russia discuss 'orbital shipyard' plans

On Fri, 22 May 2009 12:30:11 -0400, Len Lekx wrote:


Correct me if I'm wrong... but doesn't light behave according to
inverse-square laws...? Since Mars is twice as far away (roughly) from
the sun as we are, doesn't that mean that solar energy is one-quarter
the intensity?

Or am I just plain confused? :-)

Earth is, of course, 1 AU away.
Mars is about 1.4-1.6 AU away. Say, 1.5 AU.

So, (1 AU)^2 / (1.5 AU)^2 = 1/2.25 = .44 or 44%

McCall is about right when he says you get twice the solar energy on the
Moon as you do Mars. And it is true solar energy will work better on the
moon than it does on earth. The problem is, you'd have to haul up all
that solar energy equipment up to the moon, and you have 2 weeks of
darkness at a time, so you're going to need some really big batteries if
you're going to build a base there.