WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.679
Okay, Chelsea? Yeah? I have relatively good news,

00:00:05.019 --> 00:00:07.919
or at least an interesting, slightly uplifting

00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:11.259
news for the future for my episode. Sorry, for

00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:14.679
my fringy mini. This is like what episode? Yeah,

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.679
my fringy mini episode. Okay, hit us with it.

00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:22.039
Okay, so. This comes from Live Science, Live

00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:24.019
Science. Yep. We're not going to look it up.

00:00:24.179 --> 00:00:26.079
We're just going to say I'm familiar with it.

00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.460
To do that. This was published on January 14th,

00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:32.939
2025 by Ben Turner, article title, China plans

00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:35.899
to build enormous solar array in space and it

00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:38.979
could collect more energy in a year than all

00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:41.780
the oil on Earth. Haini scientists have announced

00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:45.399
a plan to build an enormous 0 .6 mile or one

00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:48.420
kilometer wide solar power station in space that

00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.289
will beam continuous energy back to Earth via

00:00:51.289 --> 00:00:54.710
microwaves. The project, which will see its components

00:00:54.710 --> 00:00:58.450
lofted to a geostationary orbit above Earth using

00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:00.729
super -heavy rockets, has been dubbed, quote,

00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:03.630
another Three Gorgeous Dam project above the

00:01:03.630 --> 00:01:06.849
Earth, end quote. Do you know what the Three

00:01:06.849 --> 00:01:09.439
Gorgeous Dam is? Yeah, it was there. Oh, yeah,

00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:12.099
that's right. So that's the next paragraph anyway.

00:01:12.420 --> 00:01:14.540
So we have to go through it. The Three Gorges

00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:16.780
Dam, located in the middle of the Yangtze River,

00:01:17.459 --> 00:01:20.260
is in central China, is the world's largest hydropower

00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:23.239
project and generates 100 billion kilowatt hours

00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:25.560
of electricity each year. According to one of

00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:28.599
NASA scientists, the dam is so large that if

00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:30.739
completely filled, the mass of the water contained

00:01:30.739 --> 00:01:35.439
within would lengthen Earth's day by 0 .06 microseconds.

00:01:35.739 --> 00:01:38.180
The new project, according to lead scientist

00:01:38.180 --> 00:01:42.480
Longlei Hao, the chief designer of China's Long

00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.159
March Rockets, would be, quote, as significant

00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.319
as moving the Three Gorges Dam to a geostationary

00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.540
orbit 36 ,000 miles above the Earth, end quote,

00:01:51.659 --> 00:01:54.280
quote. This is an incredible project to look

00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:57.019
forward to, end quote, long added during a lecture

00:01:57.019 --> 00:02:00.459
in October hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences,

00:02:00.700 --> 00:02:02.900
as reported by the South China Morning Post,

00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:05.620
quote, the energy collected in one year would

00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.030
be equivalent to the total amount of oil that

00:02:08.030 --> 00:02:10.990
can be extracted from earth." And I just want

00:02:10.990 --> 00:02:13.060
to make sure that we understand this. They're

00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:16.000
not saying oil extracted from Earth in a year.

00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:19.240
They're talking about all oil that could be extracted

00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:21.599
from the Earth. Like, that's how much energy

00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:24.080
we're talking about. That is insane. That is

00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.560
insane. Despite recent advances in the cheapness

00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:29.419
and efficiency of solar power, the technology

00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:32.560
still faces some fundamental limitations, such

00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.400
as the intermittent cloud cover and most of the

00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:37.639
atmosphere absorbing solar radiation before it

00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.360
hits the ground. Hmm. Scientists propose a number

00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:42.699
of space -based solar power technologies. which

00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:45.560
would continuously collect and transmit energy

00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:49.099
from sunlight and space, board is 10 times more

00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.939
intense than at Earth's surface. But building

00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:55.300
an appropriately giant array would take many

00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:57.400
launches, meaning that most proposals failed

00:02:57.400 --> 00:02:59.919
to get off the ground. To overcome this challenge,

00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:02.479
Long and his team are working on the development

00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.800
of the Long March 9 reusable heavy lift rocket,

00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.620
which will have a lift capacity of at least 150

00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:11.080
tons. Besides being used for satellites, the

00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:14.599
rockets will also be key to China's plan to reach

00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:16.759
the moon, where it wants to rebuild in an international

00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:20.120
lunar research base by 2035. China isn't the

00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:22.460
only nation eyeing plans for a solar satellite

00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:25.479
array. The US companies Lockheed Martin and Northrop

00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:28.759
Grunman, the European Space Agency, and Japan's

00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:31.979
JAXA space agency have also been investigating

00:03:31.979 --> 00:03:34.259
the technology with the latter scheduling the

00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:36.180
launch of a small proof of concept satellite

00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:38.740
this year to assess its feasibility. That's the

00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:40.840
end of the article. You know what? Out of all

00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:43.500
the countries you just listed, China's probably

00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:45.740
the most likely to do it, to be honest. Yeah.

00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.719
with you and I just when you're looking at like

00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:52.199
the future and like who's going to be dominant

00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:55.860
you hear a story like this from China and yes

00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:58.960
you will hear so many people critiquing China

00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:01.979
which yes China deserves some critiques let's

00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:03.500
actually talk about some of the good stuff they're

00:04:03.500 --> 00:04:07.360
doing and compare it to the US is deregulating

00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:13.479
oil and coal at this exact same time Who's going

00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.040
to rule the next century? The people who are

00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.860
trying to build the solar array or the people

00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:22.480
deregulating coal? Yeah, like if they're taking

00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:25.699
a step back. But you look at something like that

00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:29.300
and it kind of is reminiscent to me at least

00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:32.399
of the space race, but it seems like they're

00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:35.800
the only ones kind of to go up. The United States

00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:38.860
is kind of taking steps back as far as stuff

00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.959
like that goes. Yeah, it's not two countries

00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.240
trying to vie for space and one of them refusing

00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:47.040
to acknowledge that space exists. I mean, who's

00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.139
gonna win if China gets something like that up

00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:54.540
in space? Like it's not even a race, like they're

00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:57.800
gonna be the clear leader of everything. In a

00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:01.019
year, this thing can produce as much energy as

00:05:01.100 --> 00:05:05.100
That's insane. That's absolutely insane. And

00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:08.000
it's not going to wreak as much havoc on the

00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.699
environment. I mean, without knowing any of the

00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:16.379
details, which is, you know, just speculating

00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:19.019
on this. It doesn't seem as if it would, which

00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:22.459
is crazy. The implications of that. Like, yeah,

00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.199
some actual good news. China is actually working

00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:28.379
with a lot of countries on not on developing

00:05:28.379 --> 00:05:30.779
this, but making sure that everybody has access

00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:33.540
to this technology. They're not trying to hide

00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:37.319
it behind trademarks or corporate secrets. They

00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.439
are trying to share it with people so that we

00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:43.459
can all live in a safer world, a more environmentally

00:05:43.459 --> 00:05:45.740
friendly world. They're also trying to pull ahead

00:05:45.740 --> 00:05:51.060
as the leader of the universe. Yeah, that'll

00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:53.839
do it. Almost as if there's some vacuous void

00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:56.779
that has just shown up that they can inherit

00:05:56.779 --> 00:05:59.459
very easily. Interesting. And let's face it,

00:05:59.699 --> 00:06:01.500
this is one of the things China is very good

00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:05.839
at is being able to plan for something so fundamentally

00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:10.000
different and future thinking with their society

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.800
as opposed to what we have with our current society.

00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:14.120
That's pretty crazy. That's pretty... Yeah. I

00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:17.629
mean, we're just... You know, make as much money

00:06:17.629 --> 00:06:19.689
as you can off of all the poor people. Yeah,

00:06:19.709 --> 00:06:22.170
exactly. And most importantly - Who can't think.

00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:25.720
ahead we gotta mark up everything and just you

00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:27.879
know rape and pillage what you can out of the

00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:29.839
pockets of well and importantly too if energy

00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:32.000
is that abundant you can't make that much profit

00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.379
off of it which is why one of the reasons we

00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:37.620
don't look into something like this is because

00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:39.980
that was a definite thought i had too because

00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:43.360
what's running the economy of a lot of the united

00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.199
states that makes the world leader yeah and this

00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:48.060
is always something that you really need to take

00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:50.839
into account under a capitalist system whatever

00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.470
you're pushing forward needs to be profitable.

00:06:53.689 --> 00:06:57.370
it has to be profitable or it will not get built

00:06:57.370 --> 00:07:00.449
or move forward because somebody is able to money

00:07:00.449 --> 00:07:03.610
off it and if they can't why would they do anything

00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:05.930
because capitalists need to make money off it

00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:08.949
and probably one of the big reasons why they're

00:07:08.949 --> 00:07:10.870
trying to build this in space and move it forward

00:07:10.870 --> 00:07:14.269
and the U .S. is deregulating oil and gas so

00:07:14.269 --> 00:07:17.290
anyhow probably enough of a rant about our terrible

00:07:17.290 --> 00:07:20.170
terrible system and how we're falling and that

00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:23.829
was a great mini yeah and you guys 48 hours I

00:07:23.829 --> 00:07:25.230
don't know maybe look into space see if you can

00:07:25.230 --> 00:07:26.850
see this thing maybe you come up with your own

00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:29.550
idea I don't know maybe you've got your beautiful

00:07:29.550 --> 00:07:31.509
brain and you can have a good idea like this

00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:34.009
I know I can but I don't have it right now so

00:07:34.009 --> 00:07:35.509
maybe you do anyhow bye