I discovered you about a month ago, binged all your content since then, and subbed. Your SciComm videos are funny and smart with an extra twist ("what icecaps?" had me ROFL) and informational at the same time, they show that you did lots of research, and speak about the topics like someone who really understands the topic (despite "the maths train left the station without you" 😄). These could easily be used in high schools, because the attention of that age range is quite difficult to catch, but your vids easily can do that. I also need to add one more thing - as a non-native speaker from Hungary - your pronunciation is extremely clear, well paced and excellent way to learn the language - I always say that if one can have an experience of success during learning a language, then that's the most effective way. And what else could be the greatest success, than understanding one of your jokes and having a great laugh at the punchline. Thank you for producing content and sharing it with the rest of the world!
After I stopped rolling on the floor laughing, to the point of not being able to catch my breath, I checked to see if there was anything factual about your skit. You did a brilliant job in bringing up some of the actual problems with such an undertaking. You should come over here to the U.S. and consult for NASA
Wow! We are in the middle of a cold snap. Constantly just skimming above freezing outside here... thank you so much Mike... next video is out 19th March :D
While watching something like this, I sometimes jot a list of questions that occur to me in this section, then turn that into a comment that's at least readable. As I watched further into this one, I was having to delete bit's of my list one by one as Diane covered that exact point a little later in her video. I'm left with no "Yeah, but what if....." comments other than........ You can't fully protect a large space based asset. If (As a random example) Russia wanted to start a war in Europe, their first strike would BE the vast power producing satellite. Strategically it would be the target that's hardest to defend, and once Europe was relying on it for energy, it's loss would cause the most chaos to Europe. It would also be a huge target for hacking attempts. If a rouge nation got control of it, they could hold Europe to ransom with threats of remotely disabling it, or even using it as a space based weapon to attack other nations. Also, would YOU trust ANY European government not to stage a "Accidental misfiring" if it helped their political agenda?........ "Oh dear. It's 3 days before voting starts for [President/prime minister/supreme leader], and the poles show we're going to lose. Right, which opposition held cities/states could we zap to cause people there to be panicking about everything but the poling booths?....... OK, just need to BUY or blackmail a couple of key people in the ESA to do it, then make sure they know how to fake a mental break down". Mass protests in the street about a new government policy?....... "What protesters? I just see little piles of ash in the charred streets. Nope. Everyone's happy with our new policies, aren't you?........ AREN'T YOU !".
OMG yes, you're totally with me on the thinking of what else would happen. You're right that you couldn't fully protect it, also with near misses of asteroids that we don't see coming, it could definitely be knocked and then the outage would be catastrophic, if, like you theorised, Europe had become fully reliant on it. Also... YES!!! Again about the focusing of a hot light at the earth... but only a small group of people get to choose. The whole thing gives me the creeps! Thanks for your comment, I really enjoyed reading it!
thank you - tho due to the huge amount of errors being pointed out in the chat, I should emphasize this is definitely for entertainment ONLY and definitely not news XD
I'm sorry I'm late to the party, but I had to compliment you on the production values here. Brilliant video, beaming with wit. :D The science is not quite at the level I'd expect from one of my favorite science channels, but you're MUCH better with the comedy than they are with the science, so I'd consider it a win. ;) Keep up the good work. As a writer who's no strange to clouded thoughts, this got me focused and quite energized for the day. ;) Cheers!
It sounds insane. Build a few dozen thorium reactors instead. No space lasers to mis-target, no rockets to explode on lift off - etc etc. Nice clean energy.
@@DianeSpencercomedian seeing how you been apart of my life from the beginning of all this I feel you should be kept up with progress. I while back I went in for a check up on things. The doctor says I'm still clear. I think I have beaten it for now. Being of a really nasty strain of cancer I'll have to be checked out for the rest of my life but, it sure beats the alternative. I have one more check up coming soon. The doctor says if I test clear again we can limit our visits to once a year. I don't think I would have had the drive to go through this if it wasn't for you keeping me laughing. Thank you, I love you and I wish one day you're a household name.
Thanks Diane, that made me smile a lot with giggles here and there. Just to add little bit of nerdiness, this "beam" is actually closer to microwave, just higher in frequency I think. So it will not evaporate things but cook them well.
@@DianeSpencercomedian And please bring those news broadcasts more if you have the time and resource. I'm ready to volunteer and watch them multiple times.
@@DianeSpencercomedian Yup. Scientists are observing a distant planet, and fully formed people, including one man's long dead wife, show up on the station. Did some fact checking. Apparently Lem originally wrote the novel in Polish, but the version most widely available in the US was an English translation from the French translation.
Funny stuff, ma'am, as usual! A few notes: 1) Your mobile phone doesn't use satellites directly. It uses networks of cellular sites/towers that are tied into landlines. 2) PowerSats don't use lasers to transfer energy to ground stations for the very reasons that you noted. They use microwaves. 3) A plethora of science fiction novels have explored the potential disasters inherent in these proposed systems, as has the game SimCity. 4) Los Angeles also had a building that produced a death ray - as did Las Vegas. These architects aspire to be Dr. Evil and must be stopped! 5) The most frightening thing about this is that the name has already been trademarked and the lawsuits could bankrupt all of Europe.
WOW!! The name has already been trademarked! They are pushing ahead with this hey?? Thank you for your lovely comment. Yes, I have been swift to learn my phone doesn't use satellites... unless of course, I am on secret mission in Venezuela... which I'm totally not. Honest.
@@DianeSpencercomedian Solaris was a satellite telecommunications tech deployed by several joint ventures more than a decade ago. It was bought out and renamed but someone probably still owns that trademark to this day. I guess my point was that, if ESA is so very bad at simple Googling, we probably shouldn't trust them with the keys to a Death Star. 🤣 Also, that is EXACTLY what a ginger superspy would claim! 😉
America finally approved the new generation of nuclear energy generators. Now we just need to start producing them. Smaller, safer, more affordable. Hopefully we get the recycling fixed next somewhere on this globe.
Hi Diane what a total hoot. This is to space-solar-farming what black adder goes forth was to WW1. Very clever, and hilarious and slightly scary. Love you to bits, cheers from NZ
Thanks Snagglepuss! I am delighted you enjoyed this - space based solar power is a real thing people are working on, so who knows when we'll have a giant floater in the sky!
Advocating for building a solar power satellite to beam power back to Earth is sort of like Columbus advocating for building the Panama Canal - it could be a good idea, but we are not nearly anywhere near it being a practical time to do so. (For one thing, essentially all of the mass of the SPS would need to come from space-based resources, lifting that much mass off of Earth is far too expensive to be practical.)
@@DianeSpencercomedian And if we had the technology to cheaply produce and install solar power satellites we probably wouldn't need solar power satellites (at least not for Earth-based usage, but Mars might benefit from some additional energy). I have all sorts of fantasies about what we might do in the far future, but we need to make sure that everyone is well-fed, well-sheltered, well-educated, good medical care, and live in a society in which they can be productive citizens on their own terms. If we don't make sure that everyone is able to do well none of my fantasies for the far future will ever be realized.
This is a great video. The kind of thing you might see on a Last Week Tonight or something. Big, weighty subject. A fair deal of research (well, I was unaware of it, so all the info is new and valuable to me). Jokes to undercut it where necessary. Questionable accents. Its got the lot. Bravo, Di!
I like this! The concept is great, I love the multaccented lady, great effects and above all informative. No Miss Spencer, pointing out that focusing and sending down MASSIVE beams of light at one point COULD not only be weaponized BUT also just be the begining of something bigger does NOT make you a CT. It simply demonstrates a healthy and reasonable mind given the history of humankind. I can see how that could be interpreted as such though🤔🤣🤣🤣. I for my part do not get it, we already experience summers beyond european climate standarts and the high ones in the goverment want to magnify the "issue" so to speak... Seems to me they already had their fair share of "sun rays", though they don't seem to realize it but what do I know😝 Great content your Grace 😁
Last year it was "Send dust particals into orbit to block some of the excess solar energy from getting to earth". This year its "Focus MORE of the sun's energy on earth"........... I'm excited to read what they pull out of their arses next year. :D
These are the times where i have to rely on a great comedian to get informed about questinable "science projects" because journalists don't invest the time and brain to research and think. Thanks Diane! Now to the only burning 😉unanswered question this video left me: Why do you think a picture you send your husband from your phone to his, involves the data going via a satellite? I don't suppose you both bough yourself satellite phones for several hundred pounds. (or $ or € depending on where you bought it) In the case you mentioned, the picture will be transported via 3-5G over the air to the next mobile service mast, from there via copper or fibreoptic cable to the service providers next facility that decides where the data packets needs to go, and the same way back out to the other phone. At least if you aren't surveillanced by some institution that has copied your phone (like one israeli company sold to whoever had enough money and connections: via whatsapp without the user noticing) and the end destination of this data (unbeknownst to you) is on a different continent, no satellite should be involved. The only satellite data your phone normally is receiving (not transmitting to a satellite) is GPS. (at least to my knowledge)
LOL!!! Oh my word... I am such a numpty. Thank you for sending this to me. Of course we don't both have satellite phones because we're not on covert ops and pretending to be comedians... that would just be ridiculous.
Bloody Algorithm not bloody notifying me. Thanks for this Diane. I can't remember if I already told you, but your science videos (and some of your stand up) are used in homeschooling my teenage son. We very much believe in critical thinking and seeing beyond the hype. And sarcasm. You should team up with Thunderf00t, his jokes are crap, and he repeats himself way too much. So, Elon Musk, genius or muppet? I'm still waiting for my Hyperloop... More power to you, luv to you both.
Ah wonderful! Thank you so much. Hello to you and your son! Have you seen the Dodo video? That's another sciency one you may enjoy :) I have heard of Thunderf00t, but don't watch him. My UA-cam consumption tends to be reaction channels :) Have a lovely day x
Hi Jason! Oh yes, I am getting better at posting my gigs on Ents24 and they translate to my website. It depends on where in the country you are. This friday I am in Eastbourne, then saturday I am in Soho in London, then in March on 10/11 I'm in Newcastle.
By the time they manufacture them, launch them, assemble them in orbit, build the small-city-sized receiver, account for conversion losses going from visible light to electrical, from electrical to microwave, to microwave back to electrical, then losses in storage as they charge giant batteries, you would think it would have occurred to them to just build it on the bloody ground.
Most likely :D I get the premise of these... Just... something about them feels off... perhaps I read the document wrong and it'll all be absolutely fine and not a massive secret weapon!!
To be honest I think it might be a good idea, I mean if we managed to capture energy in space and send it to earth in a good way, technology in is always as good as the humans that use it. The European peoples should understand that the problem is a way of life that turns everyone into a number, every Idea into a product and every disagreement into a war. I thought climate change could teach us this lesson.... Let's see if having faith in humanity is a good thing.
No more Kardashain's please or I'll be screaming "open the pod bay doors Hal"....although maybe a crossover with space 1999 would be an interesting option don't you think?
@@colormedubious4747 UFO was No1 in my book. I just like the idea of the whole Kardashian family being trapped on the moon while it drifts away from Earth FOREVER....
@@DianeSpencercomedian don't know how to send you emails out of general purview ua-cam.com/users/shortsAAVKuQ2TQMg?feature=share Copy & paste re text I'll pull this
Diane's Germany cousin.😍.....number please.... Sorry got distracted.... Well it's a bit like Fusion I guess ...."it is the cheap solution once we have worked out how to do it and do it cheaply"? But there are somethings more pressing and more critical that we need to discuss.... It's only logical to design and build gender neutral space craft but how do we deal with docking without using out dated cistemic couplings. And isn't only using white light to power the earth, just white supremacist?
Hahahah!!! Hi Lukasz! Oh go for it - my job is to be entertaining, so I research just enough to do that. I bow to all superior knowledge out there. I'm just here for shits and giggles as we British say!
@@DianeSpencercomedian SOOO... You might say, that every laser is a beam, but not every beam is a laser. The word "laser" is actually an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation", so the name kind specifies how it's produced. The laser light is coherent, spatially and usually temporary. Beam in general can be produced however, and don't have to be coherent. Also, every project of space solar plants I've heard of assumed using a beam of microwave light, in the wavelength range where clowds are transparent 😉👍
If we humans were half as smart as we tell ourselves that we are, you would be bigger than Seinfeld and Foxworthy combined, and President of the EU as a side gig. Do you suppose that in the future, if there is a future, people might look back on this time as the era of the confidence scheme?
Haha!! You are like a rocket booster to someone's day! What a fab comment, though I should warn you I am immensely clumsy and probably not best left around important big red buttons :D Maybe... who knows. I am very lucky and grateful UA-cam exists. Thank you for writing to me. x
As with all big projects that ALWAYS manage to at least triple the initial budget, it's just another money laundering scheme, or a power grab. In this case, it is likely both.
Yeah, it's the budget that gets me... and it just seems to be in that realm of massively large infrastructure that will impact people's lives, but no one gets to vote for it?!
@@DianeSpencercomedian What also hasn't been mentioned, and never does, is that solar panels have a lifespan. They degrade over time, so it's not like we send them up and have a permanent solution. On Earth they tend to last 10 years on your roof, and that's if you bought good ones. A lot of new Chinese ones only last a year before seriously diminishing capability.
We’ll ignore the lack of birds killed flying around the microwave dishes (even when foggy) across London and look to why you can’t use your phone on a plane. It started with the EU using 1800mhz the same as the USAF. BA et al thought it would be bad publicity if Twunt Gun kept taking out their Biz Class passengers. And the same with 3G or as it’s called now 5G taking our jobs and giving us the Roni.
The 5G was me being sarcastic. The same piffle had been peddled when 3G first came out that it turned frogs gay etc.. (side note, even Radiohead claimed on their web site that 3G masts fried everything in it path, they protested the one in Oxford that wasn’t even switched on. One2One switched on a month later.) The microwave needed to transfer from the satellite to the receiver works through cloud cover and would not effect a plane as it’s technically a Faraday cage hence the reason planes survive lightning strikes. The other reason you can’t use your phone is to stop picking up roaming issues between networks and customers complaining they were in one country and being on a different country network. They have the same issue with boats as there is very little path loss on water. Ask your West-county sailors.
Awful idea of course. Just like wireless charging pads for mobile phones. It just introduces another step where the electricity is converted to another form for transmission; in this case into microwaves to beam back to earth. The best solar idea that has been proposed for Europe so far is to build HUGE solar arrays in the Sahara and send the power to Europe via undersea cables. But putting your source of power in countries on another continent probably is not a smart idea at all. Better for European countries to build local solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power sources.
I would argue that huge undersea cables you mentioned aren't going to work either. Copper is getting rarer as the need for it (with everything having to be electricaly powered nowadays) increases darstically. Then the diameters these cable have to have in order to reduce loss. And still physics always win, and the loss over that huge distance is still incredibly high. And even if they are undersea through the mediteranean sea, they come out eventually, and the line they lie has to be known, so you have a huge target to starve europe from energy. (There's a guy at the eastern end of europe who for sure would be interested) Some physicists calculated that it would be more efficient to use solar powered power plants where they make the most sense to produce hydrogen or e-fuels and transport them like fuels are transported today to wherever they are needed. (Less loss than by sending the energy over cabeling over huge distances. I also would argue against considering nuclear power as low on CO2 emissions or green. The fuel rods have a quite short lifespan, after which they have to be cooled using energy that the power plant otherwise could have provided to the consumers. Nuclear power plants are among the few power generating plants that need power to start and even when they are shut down. The sourcing of the material for and making of the fuel rods creats lots of CO2. And then there's the inherent security risk a nuclear power plant is in itself. Any sucessfull attack (no matter if physically or hacker attack) can have an unrepairable (at least over the timspan of a few thousand years) impact on millions of people in one go. The consequences are way more impactfull than they are with any other souce of energy that is in use at the moment. (I am not a fan of the windmills that are planted in the thuosands into untouched nature where i live, but at least if one of them goes wrong, most likely nobody dies and there aren't generations of new cancer patients)
Agree with everything accept for the wireless charging....I have them where ever I need to put my phone down. By always charging from trickle charger my phone is always full and ready to go. The loss is so tiny it's not worth calculate it's carbon footprint.
@@Blibby-Blobby Now multiply that times hundreds of millions or billions of those wireless charges. How much energy and materials did it take to make all of those? When ALL of us already have a drawer full of micro usb and usb-c cables? Is it still so tiny you can't calculate it? Oh, and when the day comes that I am too lazy to plug in a phone to a usb-c cable, someone needs to walk up behind me and put a bullet in my head!
@@Blibby-Blobby If you have them wherever you put your phone down, it adds up. As they are using energy and producing loss when they are plugged in and no phone is on them too. With a low distance between the wireless charging pad and the phone and perfectly matching placement of the two coils to each other, you still get less than 40% efficiency, the rest is loss. (Henc why transfprmators who work with the same principle have these huge ferromagnetic "rings" through the coils. The magnectic field flows better in that material than in air and so loss is minimized) Now think about the loss you have with bad phone placment or no phone on it at all. (the coil of the charging pad creates a electormagnetic field no matter if a phone is placed upon it or not. So every plugged in wireless charging pad is wasted energy.)
@@nirfz not exactly....if no current is drawn they remain in standby mode, like almost all modern devices. So the power used is tiny when not in use. I wonder if anyone did a environmental study on phone cables breaking all the time because they have such ridiculously small plugs or how many phones are smashed because they are still attached ?
I have heard of this SCiFi project, but only as concept, since some parts needs yet to be invented. And sure planes and people will avoid the beamed area. But do they really know the damage done to the atmosphere? And also the damage done by all those thousands of rockets? Anyway, how many time more energy can be obtained by a space based panel? Maybe ten times more, but can cost such a panel cost only ten times more to be on par with ground based ones? I have no idea. But I am willing to bet that costs hundreds or thousands times more. You know, like those solar roads, with the panels under the pavement. For sure those are scams. All are financed by public money. They pretend that is research. And in research you do not really need to be competitive. So is just a method to siphon public money. But those are little budgets, not too much scrutiny. But here, the whole world is with lenses on it. So for sure the funds will be not approved. So I assume that they are not after that big sum, but after the sum destined to research the feasibility. They will cash the money, pretending to study the problem, and will decide that is not feasible. This is such a common scheme. Building a weapon may be true too, but is too far fetched. But bombing their own towers was really far fetched too, and still they did it.
Well, we don't agree on some of the points you made, but I do hope that the planes and people will avoid the beamed area and we do not know how the beam will affect the atmosphere.
I discovered you about a month ago, binged all your content since then, and subbed.
Your SciComm videos are funny and smart with an extra twist ("what icecaps?" had me ROFL) and informational at the same time, they show that you did lots of research, and speak about the topics like someone who really understands the topic (despite "the maths train left the station without you" 😄). These could easily be used in high schools, because the attention of that age range is quite difficult to catch, but your vids easily can do that.
I also need to add one more thing - as a non-native speaker from Hungary - your pronunciation is extremely clear, well paced and excellent way to learn the language - I always say that if one can have an experience of success during learning a language, then that's the most effective way. And what else could be the greatest success, than understanding one of your jokes and having a great laugh at the punchline.
Thank you for producing content and sharing it with the rest of the world!
Gosh, thank you so much for writing to me. I feel really appreciated 💖🥳 your kind comments have made my day - thank you 😃
And THATS why i love Misses Spencer!
😃
@@DianeSpencercomedian Earned!
After I stopped rolling on the floor laughing, to the point of not being able to catch my breath, I checked to see if there was anything factual about your skit. You did a brilliant job in bringing up some of the actual problems with such an undertaking. You should come over here to the U.S. and consult for NASA
What a lovely comment, thank you so much Megan
@@DianeSpencercomedian
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is in a quick car ride from my domicile. Maybe if... 🤔
Enlightening
Ha! Ba-dum tsh!!
Much love from Tampa Bay, FL.... Feb.25 and I'm running my AC at 77* Can't wait to see what you come with next!!!
Wow! We are in the middle of a cold snap. Constantly just skimming above freezing outside here... thank you so much Mike... next video is out 19th March :D
Thank you, People's Princess.
Thanks Anzan, lovely to hear from you as always :)
While watching something like this, I sometimes jot a list of questions that occur to me in this section, then turn that into a comment that's at least readable. As I watched further into this one, I was having to delete bit's of my list one by one as Diane covered that exact point a little later in her video. I'm left with no "Yeah, but what if....." comments other than........
You can't fully protect a large space based asset. If (As a random example) Russia wanted to start a war in Europe, their first strike would BE the vast power producing satellite. Strategically it would be the target that's hardest to defend, and once Europe was relying on it for energy, it's loss would cause the most chaos to Europe. It would also be a huge target for hacking attempts. If a rouge nation got control of it, they could hold Europe to ransom with threats of remotely disabling it, or even using it as a space based weapon to attack other nations.
Also, would YOU trust ANY European government not to stage a "Accidental misfiring" if it helped their political agenda?........ "Oh dear. It's 3 days before voting starts for [President/prime minister/supreme leader], and the poles show we're going to lose. Right, which opposition held cities/states could we zap to cause people there to be panicking about everything but the poling booths?....... OK, just need to BUY or blackmail a couple of key people in the ESA to do it, then make sure they know how to fake a mental break down".
Mass protests in the street about a new government policy?....... "What protesters? I just see little piles of ash in the charred streets. Nope. Everyone's happy with our new policies, aren't you?........ AREN'T YOU !".
OMG yes, you're totally with me on the thinking of what else would happen. You're right that you couldn't fully protect it, also with near misses of asteroids that we don't see coming, it could definitely be knocked and then the outage would be catastrophic, if, like you theorised, Europe had become fully reliant on it. Also... YES!!! Again about the focusing of a hot light at the earth... but only a small group of people get to choose. The whole thing gives me the creeps! Thanks for your comment, I really enjoyed reading it!
Now this is news reporting at its finest!
thank you - tho due to the huge amount of errors being pointed out in the chat, I should emphasize this is definitely for entertainment ONLY and definitely not news XD
@@DianeSpencercomedian now a days you’re more credible than most news sources.. you actually do some research lol
I'm sorry I'm late to the party, but I had to compliment you on the production values here. Brilliant video, beaming with wit. :D
The science is not quite at the level I'd expect from one of my favorite science channels, but you're MUCH better with the comedy than they are with the science, so I'd consider it a win. ;)
Keep up the good work. As a writer who's no strange to clouded thoughts, this got me focused and quite energized for the day. ;)
Cheers!
Thank you ever so much. I splashed out on a green screen and am learning 👍
A Pepsi sponsored Death-Star? Sounds fun!
Ha! See the giant Pepsi logo in the sky, just orbiting around!
Thanks
Thank you for watching and thank you for the super thanks! I appreciate it ☺️
It sounds insane. Build a few dozen thorium reactors instead. No space lasers to mis-target, no rockets to explode on lift off - etc etc. Nice clean energy.
I love this idea!
The project would be too costly for Britain anyway.
5:11 Imagine 131 buses multiplied by £350 million a week.... 😱
You got it. This project is not well thought out on quite a few levels!
Sorry I hadn't dropped a line earlier. Things have been a little busy for me. About time, right? Anyway let me say you are absolutely fabulous.
Randall!! Lovely to hear from you as always. No rush this end :) Thank you so much for always being the kind supportive person you are.
@@DianeSpencercomedian seeing how you been apart of my life from the beginning of all this I feel you should be kept up with progress. I while back I went in for a check up on things. The doctor says I'm still clear. I think I have beaten it for now. Being of a really nasty strain of cancer I'll have to be checked out for the rest of my life but, it sure beats the alternative. I have one more check up coming soon. The doctor says if I test clear again we can limit our visits to once a year. I don't think I would have had the drive to go through this if it wasn't for you keeping me laughing. Thank you, I love you and I wish one day you're a household name.
I love your science videos, and you are so funny too 🥰. Maybe you shoud make a comedy video as well 😆😆😆
Thanks Patavalttia!! I'll bear that in mind XD
Brilliant!
And thanks for flagging that one up!
Keep on trolling the madmen!
Thank you so much
Thanks Diane, that made me smile a lot with giggles here and there.
Just to add little bit of nerdiness, this "beam" is actually closer to microwave, just higher in frequency I think. So it will not evaporate things but cook them well.
Thank you
@@DianeSpencercomedian of course, with small side effect that it will cook you at the same time.
But muffins worth it for sure.
@@DianeSpencercomedian And please bring those news broadcasts more if you have the time and resource.
I'm ready to volunteer and watch them multiple times.
Given your presentation I would go with insane.
Ha! Well, there is more information out there - thank you for watching my skit.
Solaris always makes me think of a Soviet era film based on a Polish novel that was written in French, and the George Clooney remake of the same name.
Totally. A film about a man who goes insane in space I think...
@@DianeSpencercomedian Yup. Scientists are observing a distant planet, and fully formed people, including one man's long dead wife, show up on the station.
Did some fact checking. Apparently Lem originally wrote the novel in Polish, but the version most widely available in the US was an English translation from the French translation.
Funny stuff, ma'am, as usual! A few notes:
1) Your mobile phone doesn't use satellites directly. It uses networks of cellular sites/towers that are tied into landlines.
2) PowerSats don't use lasers to transfer energy to ground stations for the very reasons that you noted. They use microwaves.
3) A plethora of science fiction novels have explored the potential disasters inherent in these proposed systems, as has the game SimCity.
4) Los Angeles also had a building that produced a death ray - as did Las Vegas. These architects aspire to be Dr. Evil and must be stopped!
5) The most frightening thing about this is that the name has already been trademarked and the lawsuits could bankrupt all of Europe.
WOW!! The name has already been trademarked! They are pushing ahead with this hey?? Thank you for your lovely comment. Yes, I have been swift to learn my phone doesn't use satellites... unless of course, I am on secret mission in Venezuela... which I'm totally not. Honest.
@@DianeSpencercomedian Solaris was a satellite telecommunications tech deployed by several joint ventures more than a decade ago. It was bought out and renamed but someone probably still owns that trademark to this day. I guess my point was that, if ESA is so very bad at simple Googling, we probably shouldn't trust them with the keys to a Death Star. 🤣
Also, that is EXACTLY what a ginger superspy would claim! 😉
Great video Di! This was a great idea and was sure to be loads of work in the making. 🤣🤣🤗
Thank you so much Badger 🦡🦡🦡😁 I really enjoyed it
America finally approved the new generation of nuclear energy generators. Now we just need to start producing them. Smaller, safer, more affordable. Hopefully we get the recycling fixed next somewhere on this globe.
I am a big fan of nuclear energy generators, ever since I went on a tour around Hinkley point B in the UK, I was fascinated and so impressed.
Well spotted. This isn't green-washing, this is astroturfing.
YES.... you win the pun award! Love it
If there's a BAFTA for Technology Shorts I nominate you.
Thanks ThePeterC1
Hi Diane what a total hoot. This is to space-solar-farming what black adder goes forth was to WW1. Very clever, and hilarious and slightly scary. Love you to bits, cheers from NZ
Thanks Snagglepuss! I am delighted you enjoyed this - space based solar power is a real thing people are working on, so who knows when we'll have a giant floater in the sky!
Just watching headliners, and you are a Rust and Prison Architect player? Kudos from another PC gamer.
Yes! I briefly made some videos about it. Here is a link to a prison architect video I made: ua-cam.com/video/9IsbcsAQ__I/v-deo.html
Advocating for building a solar power satellite to beam power back to Earth is sort of like Columbus advocating for building the Panama Canal - it could be a good idea, but we are not nearly anywhere near it being a practical time to do so. (For one thing, essentially all of the mass of the SPS would need to come from space-based resources, lifting that much mass off of Earth is far too expensive to be practical.)
right! That was one of my thoughts, I mean, it's a massive haul just to manufacturer and blast the bits into space.
@@DianeSpencercomedian And if we had the technology to cheaply produce and install solar power satellites we probably wouldn't need solar power satellites (at least not for Earth-based usage, but Mars might benefit from some additional energy). I have all sorts of fantasies about what we might do in the far future, but we need to make sure that everyone is well-fed, well-sheltered, well-educated, good medical care, and live in a society in which they can be productive citizens on their own terms. If we don't make sure that everyone is able to do well none of my fantasies for the far future will ever be realized.
This is a great video. The kind of thing you might see on a Last Week Tonight or something. Big, weighty subject. A fair deal of research (well, I was unaware of it, so all the info is new and valuable to me). Jokes to undercut it where necessary. Questionable accents. Its got the lot. Bravo, Di!
Hahahahahah!!! Thank you
I like this! The concept is great, I love the multaccented lady, great effects and above all informative.
No Miss Spencer, pointing out that focusing and sending down MASSIVE beams of light at one point COULD not only be weaponized BUT also just be the begining of something bigger does NOT make you a CT. It simply demonstrates a healthy and reasonable mind given the history of humankind.
I can see how that could be interpreted as such though🤔🤣🤣🤣.
I for my part do not get it, we already experience summers beyond european climate standarts and the high ones in the goverment want to magnify the "issue" so to speak... Seems to me they already had their fair share of "sun rays", though they don't seem to realize it but what do I know😝
Great content your Grace 😁
Last year it was "Send dust particals into orbit to block some of the excess solar energy from getting to earth". This year its "Focus MORE of the sun's energy on earth"........... I'm excited to read what they pull out of their arses next year. :D
😃 thank you so much for your comment. Yeah this idea seems a bit .... Reckless?!
@@DianeSpencercomedian I was thinking insane, unreasonable, borderline fanatic but sure. Let's go with reckless 👍🏾
These are the times where i have to rely on a great comedian to get informed about questinable "science projects" because journalists don't invest the time and brain to research and think.
Thanks Diane!
Now to the only burning 😉unanswered question this video left me: Why do you think a picture you send your husband from your phone to his, involves the data going via a satellite?
I don't suppose you both bough yourself satellite phones for several hundred pounds. (or $ or € depending on where you bought it)
In the case you mentioned, the picture will be transported via 3-5G over the air to the next mobile service mast, from there via copper or fibreoptic cable to the service providers next facility that decides where the data packets needs to go, and the same way back out to the other phone. At least if you aren't surveillanced by some institution that has copied your phone (like one israeli company sold to whoever had enough money and connections: via whatsapp without the user noticing) and the end destination of this data (unbeknownst to you) is on a different continent, no satellite should be involved.
The only satellite data your phone normally is receiving (not transmitting to a satellite) is GPS. (at least to my knowledge)
LOL!!! Oh my word... I am such a numpty. Thank you for sending this to me. Of course we don't both have satellite phones because we're not on covert ops and pretending to be comedians... that would just be ridiculous.
@@DianeSpencercomedian Good recovery squad leader. I dont think anyone noticed. :D
@@DianeSpencercomedian 🤔...😁🤣
@@DianeSpencercomedian You and Kevin use starlink and telegram to call each other don't you...who uses "wires" these days pfffffffff
Bloody Algorithm not bloody notifying me. Thanks for this Diane. I can't remember if I already told you, but your science videos (and some of your stand up) are used in homeschooling my teenage son. We very much believe in critical thinking and seeing beyond the hype. And sarcasm.
You should team up with Thunderf00t, his jokes are crap, and he repeats himself way too much.
So, Elon Musk, genius or muppet? I'm still waiting for my Hyperloop...
More power to you, luv to you both.
Ah wonderful! Thank you so much. Hello to you and your son! Have you seen the Dodo video? That's another sciency one you may enjoy :) I have heard of Thunderf00t, but don't watch him. My UA-cam consumption tends to be reaction channels :) Have a lovely day x
Are you doing any live gigs soon ? ...love to see you !...make me laugh .!..lol..!..
Hi Jason! Oh yes, I am getting better at posting my gigs on Ents24 and they translate to my website. It depends on where in the country you are. This friday I am in Eastbourne, then saturday I am in Soho in London, then in March on 10/11 I'm in Newcastle.
By the time they manufacture them, launch them, assemble them in orbit, build the small-city-sized receiver, account for conversion losses going from visible light to electrical, from electrical to microwave, to microwave back to electrical, then losses in storage as they charge giant batteries, you would think it would have occurred to them to just build it on the bloody ground.
Yeah who knew clouds cause so much trouble...
All I wanted was sharks with freaking lasers on them. Well we do have space based solar panels with “beams”. The question are they ill tempered?
Most likely :D I get the premise of these... Just... something about them feels off... perhaps I read the document wrong and it'll all be absolutely fine and not a massive secret weapon!!
To be honest I think it might be a good idea, I mean if we managed to capture energy in space and send it to earth in a good way, technology in is always as good as the humans that use it. The European peoples should understand that the problem is a way of life that turns everyone into a number, every Idea into a product and every disagreement into a war. I thought climate change could teach us this lesson.... Let's see if having faith in humanity is a good thing.
The European peoples!!! All of them! LOL Vitor I thought you would know better than that! Faith in each other is good :)
This is a terrible idea. Do you have any idea of what the beam would do to the atmosphere?
ESA should be developing a real-life Deep Space Nine instead of a real-life Death Star.
Truth!
No more Kardashain's please or I'll be screaming "open the pod bay doors Hal"....although maybe a crossover with space 1999 would be an interesting option don't you think?
@@Blibby-Blobby I'm more of a "UFO" fan. There's no school like old school!
@@colormedubious4747 UFO was No1 in my book. I just like the idea of the whole Kardashian family being trapped on the moon while it drifts away from Earth FOREVER....
@@Blibby-Blobby You make a truly compelling point, sir. Alternatively: Let's keep the moon and just let the Kardashians drift away from Earth forever.
The "Berger" in Roland Berger is pronounced more like "Burger" (as in "hamburger")
Ah thank you. I was going with Berger as in Bergerac.
Positively brilliant. n'est-ce pas
Thank you so much David! Lovely to hear from you :)
@@DianeSpencercomedian
don't know how to send you emails out of general purview
ua-cam.com/users/shortsAAVKuQ2TQMg?feature=share
Copy & paste re text I'll pull this
I saw that tech. in a bond movie. It was called the Icarus.
Was it diamonds are forever? Or another one?
@@DianeSpencercomedian
Another, Die another day:)
Diane's Germany cousin.😍.....number please....
Sorry got distracted....
Well it's a bit like Fusion I guess ...."it is the cheap solution once we have worked out how to do it and do it cheaply"?
But there are somethings more pressing and more critical that we need to discuss....
It's only logical to design and build gender neutral space craft but how do we deal with docking without using out dated cistemic couplings.
And isn't only using white light to power the earth, just white supremacist?
LOL! Right?! Until they work out how to do it let's just give them ALL OUR MONEY.
@@DianeSpencercomedian durrrrrrr
71 km² is not 71km x 71km, it's 8,4km x 8,4km.
Oh sh*t.... HAHAHAHA!!! OMG... you're totally right. Oh ffs... nevermind. Good thing I'm not in charge of these things. It sounded WAY too big.
Finally all the people who voted jedi their time to stand up and fight is coming.
LOL!
I'm holding myself back from explaining the scientific difference between beam and laser 😛
Hahahah!!! Hi Lukasz! Oh go for it - my job is to be entertaining, so I research just enough to do that. I bow to all superior knowledge out there. I'm just here for shits and giggles as we British say!
@@DianeSpencercomedian SOOO... You might say, that every laser is a beam, but not every beam is a laser. The word "laser" is actually an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation", so the name kind specifies how it's produced. The laser light is coherent, spatially and usually temporary. Beam in general can be produced however, and don't have to be coherent. Also, every project of space solar plants I've heard of assumed using a beam of microwave light, in the wavelength range where clowds are transparent 😉👍
@@DianeSpencercomedian P.S. You basically asked for it 😘
Giant hamster wheels for gingers......Ginger Wheel 😁
@Jim Allen 🤣
Just running away from a ray of sunshine creeping CLOSER 😱
@@DianeSpencercomedian 😁
If we humans were half as smart as we tell ourselves that we are, you would be bigger than Seinfeld and Foxworthy combined, and President of the EU as a side gig.
Do you suppose that in the future, if there is a future, people might look back on this time as the era of the confidence scheme?
Haha!! You are like a rocket booster to someone's day! What a fab comment, though I should warn you I am immensely clumsy and probably not best left around important big red buttons :D Maybe... who knows. I am very lucky and grateful UA-cam exists. Thank you for writing to me. x
That’s no moon . . , that’s a solar powered gender neutral space satellite.
HAHAHA!!! YESSSS!!
👇 👇 - no, thanks, on so many levels. Can we get a global petition going?
I have no idea my dear!
As with all big projects that ALWAYS manage to at least triple the initial budget, it's just another money laundering scheme, or a power grab. In this case, it is likely both.
Yeah, it's the budget that gets me... and it just seems to be in that realm of massively large infrastructure that will impact people's lives, but no one gets to vote for it?!
@@DianeSpencercomedian What also hasn't been mentioned, and never does, is that solar panels have a lifespan. They degrade over time, so it's not like we send them up and have a permanent solution. On Earth they tend to last 10 years on your roof, and that's if you bought good ones. A lot of new Chinese ones only last a year before seriously diminishing capability.
That EU lady seems like a terrible person, but her accent is pure aphrodisia. Think I might go hang out near the Parliament.
🤣🤣
She never turned up. That's two weeks I won't get back.
Are you the British Julianne Moore?
Lol, no, but if I am anything like that wonderful lady, that's a great thing.
I can't believe this girl is making sense.
Girl - thank you very much! I shall continue my skincare regime XD
We’ll ignore the lack of birds killed flying around the microwave dishes (even when foggy) across London and look to why you can’t use your phone on a plane. It started with the EU using 1800mhz the same as the USAF. BA et al thought it would be bad publicity if Twunt Gun kept taking out their Biz Class passengers. And the same with 3G or as it’s called now 5G taking our jobs and giving us the Roni.
5G does not give you coronavirus. You're saying it does, I'm saying it doesn't. I'm sure we'd agree on something else, but this we don't.
The 5G was me being sarcastic. The same piffle had been peddled when 3G first came out that it turned frogs gay etc.. (side note, even Radiohead claimed on their web site that 3G masts fried everything in it path, they protested the one in Oxford that wasn’t even switched on. One2One switched on a month later.) The microwave needed to transfer from the satellite to the receiver works through cloud cover and would not effect a plane as it’s technically a Faraday cage hence the reason planes survive lightning strikes. The other reason you can’t use your phone is to stop picking up roaming issues between networks and customers complaining they were in one country and being on a different country network. They have the same issue with boats as there is very little path loss on water. Ask your West-county sailors.
💩 I worry about their mental health.
Yeah, and they're the ones in charge of the budget....
Insanity, on steroids.
Lol! I think that's a cocktail isn't it?
Awful idea of course. Just like wireless charging pads for mobile phones. It just introduces another step where the electricity is converted to another form for transmission; in this case into microwaves to beam back to earth. The best solar idea that has been proposed for Europe so far is to build HUGE solar arrays in the Sahara and send the power to Europe via undersea cables. But putting your source of power in countries on another continent probably is not a smart idea at all. Better for European countries to build local solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power sources.
I would argue that huge undersea cables you mentioned aren't going to work either. Copper is getting rarer as the need for it (with everything having to be electricaly powered nowadays) increases darstically. Then the diameters these cable have to have in order to reduce loss. And still physics always win, and the loss over that huge distance is still incredibly high.
And even if they are undersea through the mediteranean sea, they come out eventually, and the line they lie has to be known, so you have a huge target to starve europe from energy. (There's a guy at the eastern end of europe who for sure would be interested)
Some physicists calculated that it would be more efficient to use solar powered power plants where they make the most sense to produce hydrogen or e-fuels and transport them like fuels are transported today to wherever they are needed. (Less loss than by sending the energy over cabeling over huge distances.
I also would argue against considering nuclear power as low on CO2 emissions or green. The fuel rods have a quite short lifespan, after which they have to be cooled using energy that the power plant otherwise could have provided to the consumers. Nuclear power plants are among the few power generating plants that need power to start and even when they are shut down.
The sourcing of the material for and making of the fuel rods creats lots of CO2.
And then there's the inherent security risk a nuclear power plant is in itself. Any sucessfull attack (no matter if physically or hacker attack) can have an unrepairable (at least over the timspan of a few thousand years) impact on millions of people in one go.
The consequences are way more impactfull than they are with any other souce of energy that is in use at the moment.
(I am not a fan of the windmills that are planted in the thuosands into untouched nature where i live, but at least if one of them goes wrong, most likely nobody dies and there aren't generations of new cancer patients)
Agree with everything accept for the wireless charging....I have them where ever I need to put my phone down. By always charging from trickle charger my phone is always full and ready to go. The loss is so tiny it's not worth calculate it's carbon footprint.
@@Blibby-Blobby Now multiply that times hundreds of millions or billions of those wireless charges. How much energy and materials did it take to make all of those? When ALL of us already have a drawer full of micro usb and usb-c cables? Is it still so tiny you can't calculate it? Oh, and when the day comes that I am too lazy to plug in a phone to a usb-c cable, someone needs to walk up behind me and put a bullet in my head!
@@Blibby-Blobby If you have them wherever you put your phone down, it adds up. As they are using energy and producing loss when they are plugged in and no phone is on them too.
With a low distance between the wireless charging pad and the phone and perfectly matching placement of the two coils to each other, you still get less than 40% efficiency, the rest is loss. (Henc why transfprmators who work with the same principle have these huge ferromagnetic "rings" through the coils. The magnectic field flows better in that material than in air and so loss is minimized)
Now think about the loss you have with bad phone placment or no phone on it at all.
(the coil of the charging pad creates a electormagnetic field no matter if a phone is placed upon it or not. So every plugged in wireless charging pad is wasted energy.)
@@nirfz not exactly....if no current is drawn they remain in standby mode, like almost all modern devices. So the power used is tiny when not in use. I wonder if anyone did a environmental study on phone cables breaking all the time because they have such ridiculously small plugs or how many phones are smashed because they are still attached ?
I have heard of this SCiFi project, but only as concept, since some parts needs yet to be invented. And sure planes and people will avoid the beamed area. But do they really know the damage done to the atmosphere? And also the damage done by all those thousands of rockets?
Anyway, how many time more energy can be obtained by a space based panel? Maybe ten times more, but can cost such a panel cost only ten times more to be on par with ground based ones? I have no idea. But I am willing to bet that costs hundreds or thousands times more. You know, like those solar roads, with the panels under the pavement. For sure those are scams. All are financed by public money. They pretend that is research. And in research you do not really need to be competitive. So is just a method to siphon public money. But those are little budgets, not too much scrutiny. But here, the whole world is with lenses on it. So for sure the funds will be not approved.
So I assume that they are not after that big sum, but after the sum destined to research the feasibility. They will cash the money, pretending to study the problem, and will decide that is not feasible. This is such a common scheme. Building a weapon may be true too, but is too far fetched. But bombing their own towers was really far fetched too, and still they did it.
Well, we don't agree on some of the points you made, but I do hope that the planes and people will avoid the beamed area and we do not know how the beam will affect the atmosphere.
🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😍😍😍😍😍👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🇬🇧🇺🇦🏳️🌈🎩 this project is insane, what on earth are they thinking? I think you’re right Di.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I mean it MIGHT still happen if they get all the funding!