From: utzoo!decvax!cca!REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: solar power on the moon.
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.3366
Posted: Mon Sep 20 16:17:23 1982
Received: Tue Sep 21 10:25:12 1982

From: Robert Elton Maas 
Regarding bimetal strips in chokes in cars: Those have been a source
of malfunction in every car I've ever had. Because they have no
smarts, when they jam they aren't aware of it, take no corrective
action, report nothing to the operator (driver). For the moon I hope
we use something with some smarts. I propose an omni-direction solar
array (inefficient but gives some power whenever the sun is in the
sky) for bootstrapping the computer logic; alternately a
radioactive-decay heat source. Then use that energy to run a smart
aiming device for the main batch of solar cells or other solar energy
collection/conversion devices. Then use that energy to run the mining
experiment station.