Best thread ever! TFP needs its own Science section though. OK where to start... And I apologize if you are offended by some of my jokes about science. I just have a twisted sense of humor when it comes to things that are potentially dangerous.
-Fuzyfuzer: It's a nice idea but would cost some to keep running. There would have to be fields of these underwater props to gather the current's energy. It's good though because water is a viscous fluid, the props would be constantly spinning. Unlike Hard8s, I say just use a sonic system to repel the fish away, like those plug-in buggers that
supposedly keep the bugs and rodents out of my house :steps on bug:. But like it was mentioned you'd need to keep it clean. There would have to be some sort of station with a crew that cleaned certain props daily. If nothing else this is an alternative to powering sea labs (when we would get them in mass numbers) without the aid of batteries. Even better is water:
2H/2/0(l) + electricity --> 2H/2/(g) + O/2/(g)
If the water is clean enough, electrolysis will produce hydrogen and oxygen gas from that water.
-Tecoyah: Nice.
I thought I was the only one that knew of that system. I say that the Ikarus from
Die Another Day would be infinitely more interesting to use... :evil chuckle:.
-Hunter, Fckm, and Xandren: Fusing all the ideas into one. The "Space Elevator." Heard of it? If not I will explain (I do so because I have dial up internet... and lack the patience to wait 8 minutes to receive an error message). The idea is to run a giant tether into space that is anchored there by a large mass suspended from their rotational forces it spinning above the Earth faster than orbital speeds. If you build one of these tethers on Earth, and one on the Moon, you can have a completely automated recovery system that mines and ships. This tether is made from super strong nanotube technology--is 100x stronger than steel and is 1 inch wide by 1/10 of a human hair thick! But to prevent decay from O/2/ in our atmosphere, it would have to be coated with Platinum, so now its really expensive! But Xandren, there is your cable into space to harness static electricity, if you want to still.
-Supersix2: "The power is generated by a sattelite with large conducting surfaces (like large wings). It would be orbiting through the earths magnetic field and therefore would be changing the magnetic flux on its conducting surfaces and produce electricity." Also, back EMF would try to force your wings to slow down and that is a problem when satellites fall from orbit.
I asked the same thing and I got the same response from my physics professor.
-Piglet: You have a novel idea with the microwave array. And there would not need to be a large array to collect the energy, a single LARGE ground satellite dish could capture all the energy in one short, POWERFUL burst. And if something were to go wrong, like a misfire or alignment error... anyone around won’t know it. You will have nuked that area. So I say put that collection dish somewhere in... Idaho. When that mishap occurs you have made the world an endless supply of baked potatoes. ...Not funny... And since you mentioned enzymes:
(This goes out to HeccubusIV too)
Microbes In Colorful Yellowstone Hot Springs Fueled By Hydrogen
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-05g.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/energy-tech-05f.html
;-) Nice touch with the Unicorn joke, Piglet.
My own idea that would screw with the environmentalists: Build a tether here, and one on Titan, where it looks like there are liquid oceans of hydrocarbons. You never need to worry about the environment again... It'll just go from bad to worse, then start over. KIDDING!