Extracting electrical energy from Orbital motion

[camptent]

TL;DR Summary

Mimic orbital motion for electrical generative purposes

If the earth has been revolving around the sun almost perpetually, we should mimic this motion for electric generative purposes or is it not feasible?

 

[Ibix]

What do you mean by "mimic this motion"? The Earth is going round the Sun, but there isn't any practical way to generate electricity from that, as far as I know.

 

[Filip Larsen]

The Earth is already receiving a lot of free energy from the sun and harvesting that is called solar power, which you can think of a as kind of electrical mechanism since light is an EM-field. For a more direct harvesting of orbital energy you can also consider how the Moon allow for tidal power generation on Earth.

 

[Drakkith]

If the earth has been revolving around the sun almost perpetually, we should mimic this motion for electric generative purposes or is it not feasible?

Are you referring to leaching orbital energy from the Earth to provide electricity? If so, there's not really a feasible way of doing so.

 

[camptent]

Are you referring to leaching orbital energy from the Earth to provide electricity? If so, there's not really a feasible way of doing so.

Wow this reply just opened up a Pandora's box for me, this would awesome

 

[Baluncore]

Wow this reply just opened up a Pandora's box for me, this would awesome

I wonder what you really mean by that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora's_box

"Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – usually translated as Hope, ...".

When Pandora's box is again opened, the last thing remaining, "hope" escapes.

"... the idiom "to open a Pandora's box", meaning to do or start something that will cause many unforeseen problems. A modern, more colloquial equivalent is "to open a can of worms"."

 

[berkeman]

Wow this reply just opened up a Pandora's box for me, this would awesome

Please don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to generate electrical energy from the rotation of the Earth or its orbit around the Sun. I spent a little time on this (before finding PF), and eventually concluded correctly that you cannot do this in the Earth's isolated system. You would need some external system (a giant gorilla the size of the solar system) who could "hold" objects stationary to interact with the orbiting planets. Not going to happen.

It's good to be creative, but you need to learn enough basic science to be able to figure out "non-existence proofs" quickly for creative ideas that will not work. That gives you more time to devote to other ideas that do have a chance of working.

 

[hutchphd]

Please don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to generate electrical energy from the rotation of the Earth or its orbit around the Sun. I spent a little time on this (before finding PF), and eventually concluded correctly that you cannot do this in the Earth's isolated system. You would need some external system (a giant gorilla the size of the solar system) who could "hold" objects stationary to interact with the orbiting planets. Not going to happen.

It's good to be creative, but you need to learn enough basic science to be able to figure out "non-existence proofs" quickly for creative ideas that will not work. That gives you more time to devote to other ideas that do have a chance of working.

So you're responsible for that damned Gorilla? Doesn't he do the cattle mutilations?
Actually weren't there a few experiments (shuttle? Gemini?) that tried to use radial tethers to generate power?

 

[berkeman]

Actually weren't there a few experiments (shuttle? Gemini?) that tried to use radial tethers to generate power?

Link?

I think there might be some ways to try to generate power from the solar wind and orbital rotation, but there's that pesky issue of how to get that power down to the Earth's surface (similar to orbital solar power generation).

 

[russ_watters]

Actually weren't there a few experiments (shuttle? Gemini?) that tried to use radial tethers to generate power?

Link?

I think there might be some ways to try to generate power from the solar wind and orbital rotation, but there's that pesky issue of how to get that power down to the Earth's surface (similar to orbital solar power generation).

Shuttle: https://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wtether.html

But:
1. This would only produce electricity for the spacecraft on the other end of the wire.
2. It would sap/convert it from orbital energy so I'm not entirely sure I see the point. But it was just an experiment.

On a larger scale, such an idea could conceivably harness earth's rotation or orbital energy (or the Moon's?), but I don't see how. Drop a tether from the moon, perhaps? Pretty sci-fi.

 

[Filip Larsen]

I think the "immediate use" of an electrodynamic theter is to work as an orbit raising mechanics, e.g. use solar power to more or less directly counter low orbit drag without use of any propellant. My current understanding of this technology is that it is not without problems and so far has proven too complicated to operate reliable as the main boost mechanism on a LEO satellite.