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 MaasRegarding 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.