To: Michael Stevens

From: Samuel Reddick

Dear Michael,

HEY, VSAUCE!
Im sorry about that, and Im sure that you get that joke all of the time from the rest of your fans,
so the laugh here is admittedly more for me.

Recently, I have been doing research into lightning which has let to me learningand have learned
a lot of cool facts about the mechanisms that cause it, the danger posed to humans and animals,
and how various cultures have revered it. Even though I knew that it couldnt be practically
harnessed as an energy source from the stern confirmation given to me by my high school
physics teacher, I decided that I would investigate why.

This is what led me to read through Dr. M. L. Breuers extensive work on the topic and discover
that (as you no doubt know) even if it were captured with 100% efficiency, lightning still
wouldnt produce a reasonable amount of our global power needs. This initially led me to think
that all research into possible technologies to harness lighting would be futile, but then I came
across one argument for harnessing lightning off-world.

This led me to consider the possibility that for future space missions that may be too far from the
Sun to receive adequate solar power for their needs--assuming their needs are power intensive--
and that perhaps harnessing distant planets atmospheric discharge to power these missions
wasnt a bad idea. I wrote a letter to Dr. Breuer inquiring whether or not he thinks that we should
be investing in the technology so that one day distant missions can be fueled by a separate
battery satellite that orbits the host planet and stores some of its charge.

This got me thinking about a series of other questions that I would love to see you either respond
to in text, or if you have the time, respond to in a video:
1. Do you think that the battery satellite idea sounds feasible
2. How many planets or moons of the Solar System or Alpha Centauri would have
atmospheres to support this?
3. How much energy would future space exploration require in various stages:
a. Initially for mere travel (probably the amount provided by the Sun)
b. Then to investigate (support a small group of humans off-world)
c. To mine for research and to support the resident humans
d. And possibly to terraform
4. What are some creative ways to move this lightning energy across space (if you know of
any interesting ones)
5. And how would future extensive space missions be powered far from Earth if not by
solar or lightning power?

I definitely dont expect you to be able to answer all of these in a single video, and would
honestly just be excited if you talked about 1 or 5. I am always ready to learn knew things and
your channel provides some of the best entertainment that I can find on YouTube or otherwise.
Keep up the good work,
Samuel Reddick