Re: Dark side of the Moon
The idea of placing solar panels in a belt around the moon is pretty daft, because half of the panels would always be in shade!
But not the same half all the time. The moon only shows one face to the Earth because it's tidally locked, which means that when the moon is between the Earth and the sun, the "dark side" of the moon is lit by the sun.
If it's comparable in cost to build and ship those panels (or ship a robot up to the moon and have it build the panels there?) rather than shoot up satellites with a little over half as many panels and then burn energy maintaining their orbit and ensuring their panels always point directly at the sun, and that they don't collide with the other satellites in geosynchronous orbit, then the moon option is still a contender.
There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. -- PF