TABLE 1 Fraction of Power Collected vs Nondimensional Radius Parameter X. mentioning that the proportion of power collected, (i = WjWi, which has been taken as a given parameter in this report, will in general affect the minimum cost but not in such an obvious way as might first be thought. For example if p were increased from .95 to .97, a larger and more costly receiver would be required, all other factors (except Wj) being equal. However, if the number of watts to be collected on the ground is kept fixed, then by changing to /3 = .97 from (3 = .95, many thousands of watts less power need be transmitted. This in turn means a substantial reduction in the number of expensive solar cells required for the transmitter which of course would reduce the cost of the orbiting satellite. When comparisons are to be made with the Gaussian distribution, the power density at the center of the receiving antenna is taken as Ko = 230 watts/meter2. This is the customary accepted maximum value permitted to minimize long term effects at the time of writing. The ground radius Ro, the transmitting radius Rj and the minimum cost per unit ground antenna cost To obtain the above quantities, we do not need to calculate the optimum distribution function pM; we need only suppose that, whatever it is, we are using it to transmit the power. The radii of our antennas are calculated from any two of equations (35), (36), and (37). The optimum or minimum cost is given by equation (38) and the minimum cost per unit ground antenna cost is The results of these calculations are shown in Table 2.
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