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"Everything starts as somebody's daydream. And, when you're daydreaming, it is science fiction. It's when you start work out how you put it together, true science fiction becomes real science."
- Larry Niven

Solar Station  
  A satellite that gathers solar energy in space and then beams it to Earth (or other planetary surface).  

How can you explain space and stars and planets - to a robot? Even a robot intended to administer a solar station.

"The dots to which our energy beams are directed... are cold and hard and human beings like myself live upon their surfaces - many billions of them... Our beams feed these worlds energy drawn from... the Sun.
Technovelgy from Reason, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1941
Additional resources -

Where else can you read a phrase like "Sizzling Saturn!"

In the story, it is revealed that the station is about a mile across. It uses an "Energy Converter" to gather sunlight; the station can beam energy across the solar system to different planets.

I'll have to go back to my collection of vintage Astounding Science Fiction to see whether this story was before Clifford Simak's Masquerade, which uses a similar idea - see solar energy beam. [Asimov's story appears in April - but Simak's appears in March! Of course, it might have been John w. Campbell's idea, anyway.]

Compare to the power planet from Power Planet (1931) by Murray Leinster, the near-space solar energy collector from Star Maker (1937) by Olaf Stapledon, the solar station switch room from Doom Over Venus (1940) by Edmond Hamilton, and the solar beam from The Long Way (1944) by George O. Smith.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Reason
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Reason
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Solar Station-related news articles:
  - Can China Create Megawatt Solar Power Satellites By 2030?

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