Popular Science reports on a small prototype satellite designed to harvest solar energy that launched earlier this week. "If its initial experiments are successful, arrays similar to Caltech’s Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) could one day beam essentially endless renewable energy back to Earth via microwave transmitters."
Over the next few weeks and months, the roughly 110-pound prototype will send back data on three main projects. The Deployable on-Orbit ultraLight Composite Experiment (DOLCE) will test lightweight, foldable structures that can unfurl to collect sunlight. Meanwhile, ALBA (Italian for “dawn”), a collection of 32 different varieties of photovoltaic cells, will determine which could work best in the space’s extremely harsh environment. Finally, the Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment (MAPLE) will test microwave transmitters that may one day transmit the collected solar power via wireless electricity.
A microwave array, once it is scaled up in size and power, would probably make a good weapon as well.
Have your birds cooked, from space!
ReplyDeleteThe microwaves will also heat the atmosphere. But as long as it is zero-carbon, it's okay.
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