Luna Ring Would Harness Solar Power on Moon and Beam It to Earth

(June 4) -- The moon is pretty, sure, but what good is it really? Aside from providing sundry tides and a rather inconveniently located low-gravity golf course, it just kind of sits there.

A Japanese company called the Shimizu Corp. has a thought to change that. It's developed a plan to turn the moon into a giant solar power plant that could power all of us down here on Earth.

ChinaFotoPress / Getty Images

A Japanese firm has proposed a scheme to build a ring of solar panels around the moon that we on Earth could harness for energy. Who would do the building? Robots.

The plan is to use robots assembled in space to build a 6,800-mile-long ring of solar panels around the moon's equator that would collect solar energy that could be beamed back to Earth in the form of powerful microwaves shot by antennae 20km in diameter.

A careful study of James Bond films can reveal some of the risks associated with allowing giant corporations to build energy beams in space, but guidance beacons would theoretically shut down the beam if it went where it wasn't supposed to.

The Luna Ring is not Shimizu's only, uh, unorthodox idea. On its website, the company also has a concept for a space hotel, a compact floating city and a giant network of canals and seawater lakes designed to pump life into the world's deserts. Shimizu plans to do most of the construction with lunar materials that can be excavated and used to make concrete, ceramics, glass and even water.

The scheme is, perhaps, a bit ambitious, but there don't seem to be plans to get construction under way anytime soon. In the nearer-distant future, other Japanese companies like Mitsubishi Electric and IHI have invested billions into space-based solar power, with one major obstacle being a way to use microwaves to convey electricity without cables.

Until then, as commenters on environmental blogs like Treehugger regularly point out: The sun does shine on the Earth as well.