What's a solar array?

And why do we want it in orbit?

When examining out current situation of energy, it is important to consider all our options, even ones that may seem a little more out of the box than we could perhaps expect. One such idea is using solar power, but not in the format you might expect. A legitimate idea is to launch a solar station into an orbit around the Earth. This doesn't seem like a radical or new idea, and in fact, it has been proposed since at least the 1960's as a legitimate way to provide power for a predicted need. This may in turn perhaps negate some problems that solar arrays upon the ground present.

For example, solar arrays can only transmit the sun's energy that we can obtain through the atmosphere, whereas, a solar array in orbit around the Earth could potentially harness the entire amount of sunlight, unimpeded by the atmosphere. This seems like a good idea right? No space is used upon the ground (as in the picture to your right) and we can have nearly free power. Well, actually, not very free, not at all.

As it turns out, getting things into a stable, and useful orbit around our Earth isn't exactly an easy thing to accomplish, in fact, it's fairly expensive. Not only that, but we can't exactly have a power cable running from out new solar array in orbit to the ground, for various reasons, so we have to rely solely on wireless forms of transmission, some of which show surprising promise in being useful for transmitting the solar energy.

But that won't stop us from using our trusty calculators to see what's what with these ideas, as much of the problems can be explained with some math and some comparisons for those whom don't have a vested interested in the inherent beauty of the underlying math.

The hope is that these pages will convey a basic understanding of the troubles and issues that transmitted orbital solar power may provide, as well as the concepts behind all the science, to better inform people. But, as a note, many calculations will be only approximations, and are not to be taken as cold hard data.
http://www.solarpowertoday.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Gemasolar.jpg

Welcome!
Intro to
Orbital Solar Arrays
Crash Course in
Not Crashing
(orbital mechanics)
How do
microwaves even work?
Can we actually
lift all this up there?
Sources