Caltech scientists have claimed they successfully transmitted space-based solar power to Earth for the first time ever.
The researchers completed the transfer via a space-borne prototype from Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project called the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1). It is one of three research projects being carried out by the SSPD-1.
According to a press release by Caltech, the prototype harvested sunlight before converting it into electricity and beaming it via an array of flexible lightweight microwave power transmitters back to Caltech’s Gordon and Betty Moore Laboratory of Engineering on Caltech’s campus in Pasadena.
The experiment, called Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment (MAPLE), was led by Ali Hajimiri, Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering.
MAPLE has two receivers that collect solar energy and convert it to DC electricity. The energy was used to light up two LEDs inside the prototype. As Gizmodo notes, the researchers were able to light up one LED at a time by shifting the transmissions between the receivers. MAPLE additionally has a window that allows the spacecraft to beam energy to Earth.
"Through the experiments we have run so far, we received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space," Hajimiri said in the release. "We have also been able to program the array to direct its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech. We had, of course, tested it on Earth, but now we know that it can survive the trip to space and operate there."
Hajimiri added that the breakthrough meant that energy could be sent “to remote regions and areas devastated by war or natural disaster” since “no energy transmission infrastructure will be needed on the ground to receive this power.”
