"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 19:21:01 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


" Jeanne Stockdale" wrote in message
...

"Franz Heymann" wrote in
message
...

"

In the ultimate future that is quite true. At some stage it
will
become essential to cap the total human population. However,
the
amount of energy available in fissile (and fusible) materials
is
vastly in excess of that in the available fossil fuels.

Franz


In order to shorten the period within we can take
advantage
of the
sun's energy, we should go down the road of directly extracting
the
radiated
energy.

Sorry, but the meaning of that sentence escapes me entirely.

It's the Icarus solution :-)



We have (more than ! ) an abundance of water and hydrogen
should be
easily extractable therefrom by heat from the sun.

There is no direct way of using solar heat to decompose water into
hydrogen and oxygen
Electrolysing water just to burn it again is not a *source* of any
energy whatsoever. It merely provides a method of storing and
transporting energy.

It's just a matter imho
of developing the technology to focus the energy
appropriately.

What would this technology consist of?

Not
such a difficult concept when you remember setting fire to paper
as
a kid
using a magnifying glass.
On combustion the residue is water if my O level Phys/Chem
memories
are correct.

Your memories of chenmistry are very badly flawed. Burning carbon
does not yield any water at all. It yields mainly CO2 under ideal
burning conditions. The CO2 is the ****** in the woodpile which we
are trying to get rid of.

I think he meant burning oxygen and hydrogen together like the space
shuttle does.

No. He was talking about burning a piece of paper.

Franz