New Satellite Successfully Beams Power From Space

 

International Conference on Nuclear Physics




Solar power is the fastest-growing form of renewable energy and currently accounts for 3.6% of global electricity production today. This makes it the third largest source of the renewable energy market, followed by hydroelectric power and wind. These three methods are expected to grow exponentially in the coming decades, reaching 40% by 2035 and 45% by 2050. Altogether, renewables are expected to account for 90% of the energy market by mid-century, with solar accounting for roughly half. However, several technical challenges and issues need to be overcome for this transition to occur.






The main limiting factor for solar power is intermittency, meaning it can only collect power when sufficient sunlight is available. To address this, scientists have spent decades researching space-based solar power (SBSP), where satellites in orbit would collect power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without interruption. To develop the technology, researchers with the Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) at Caltech recently completed the first successful wireless power transfer using the Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment (MAPLE).

MAPLE was developed by a Caltech team led by Ali Hajimiri, the Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering and the co-director of the SSPP. MAPLE is one of three key technologies tested by the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1). This platform consists of an array of flexible, lightweight microwave transmitters controlled by custom electronic chips. The demonstrator was built using low-cost silicon technologies designed to harvest solar energy and beam it to desired receiving stations worldwide.



The SSPP began in 2011 when Donald Bren, a lifetime member of the Caltech Board of Trustees, approached Caltech’s then-president Jean-Lou Chameau to discuss the creation of an SBSP research project. Bren and his wife (also a Caltech trustee) agreed to donate a total of $100 million to fund the project, while the Northrop Grumman Corporation provided an additional $12.5 million. The SSPD-1 launched on January 3rd atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of a rideshare program and was deployed by a Vigoride spacecraft (provided by aerospace company Momentus).

For SBSP to be feasible, the satellites need to be lightweight so they can be launched in a cost-effective way and flexible so they can fit inside payload fairings (similar to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Harry Atwater, the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, and the Director of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, is one of the project’s principal investigators. As he explained in a Caltech press release:


“Demonstration of wireless power transfer in space using lightweight structures is an important step toward space solar power and broad access to it globally. Solar panels already are used in space to power the International Space Station, for example, but to launch and deploy large enough arrays to provide power to Earth, SSPP has to design and create solar power energy transfer systems that are ultra-lightweight, cheap, and flexible.”

Each SSPP unit weighs around 50 kilograms (~110 lbs), comparable with microsatellites that typically weigh between 10 and 100 kg (22 to 220 lbs). Each unit folds into packages about 1 m3 (~35 ft3) in volume and then unfurls into a flat square measuring about 50 m (164 ft) in diameter, with solar cells on one side and wireless power transmitters on the other. The SPPD-1 components are unsealed, meaning they are exposed to the extreme temperature variations of space. Beyond demonstrating that power transmitters can survive being launched into space, the experiment has provided useful feedback to SSPP engineers.


#NuclearEnergy#NuclearPower#NuclearTechnology#NuclearSafety#NuclearDisarmament
#NuclearSecurity#AtomicEnergy#NuclearScience#NuclearReactors#NuclearWaste
#NuclearPolicy#NuclearNonproliferation#NuclearMedicine

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