over 50% efficiency. There is no doubt that we could improve upon Marconi's feat today, transmitting not only the signal to start the exposition but also the power to run it half way around the world. Power transmission through space does not pose any insurmountable technical problems due to the general maturity of electronics technology and to our considerable experience with the transmission of microwaves through space for communications use. It is possible to transmit considerable amounts of power anywhere in the world using satellites. Following this line of reasoning, it is obvious that we could transmit power from remote locations where there are significant hydroelectric resources to the currently existing centres of consumption. Actually doing this does present great technical, economic and political problems. In light of the tremendous potential value of such a power transmission system, it may be worth the considerable effort necessary to overcome these problems, and is certainly worth the effort involved in studying this idea further to determine its true merits. Power Transmission via Satellite Let us start with a schematic representation of a satellite transmission system which is shown in Fig. 2. Let us imagine a remotely located generating station, for example, Itaipu on the Panama river, or Inga on the Zaire. Power generated at this centre is converted to a microwave beam which is directed towards one or more geostationary reflecting antennae. These antennae would be large enough to intercept most of the power beamed at them, and shaped so as to reflect that power to one or more receiving
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