![\"shutterstock_69599944-224x300\"](\"http:\/\/zoldenergiablog.hu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/shutterstock_69599944-224x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUsing space-based solar power to meet our energy needs on Earth is not a new idea. Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little, Inc. described a space-based solar-power satellite concept in 1968, one year before Neal Armstrong walked on the Moon. Glaser proposed using microwave beams to transmit power back to Earth.<\/p>\n
A practical space-based solar power satellite requires some technical advances, mainly in launch costs but also in other areas such as in-space fabrication, control of large space structures, and on-orbit maintainability. The biggest stumbling block, however, is not technical but economic.<\/p>\n
The US Naval Research Laboratory has been looking into space-based solar power for the last several years. The Navy\u2019s interest in delivering energy from space is not surprising. The military often finds itself in special situations where it pays exceptionally high prices for energy. During World War II, for example, the Army was paying over $1000 a gallon to fly gasoline over \u201cthe Hump\u201d into Burma. (Real 1940\u2032s dollars, not today\u2019s inflated greenbacks.) That\u2019s comparable to what it costs to launch payloads into orbit today. The military continues to pay high prices today, in places like Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Paul Jaffe, an aerospace engineer at NRL, has built and tested a module to capture and transmit solar power.<\/p>\n
Jaffe has built two different versions of what he calls the \u201csandwich\u201d module. In both designs, one side receives solar energy with a photovoltaic panel and the other side has an antenna to beam power away. Electronics in the middle convert the direct current to a radiofrequency.<\/p>\n
Jaffe says his sandwich module is four times more efficient than anything done previously.<\/p>\n
The development of space-to-space power beaming would aid the military is disaggregating satellite functions (currently a priority for the US Air Force, which wishes to reduce its dependence on large satellites). A space-based power satellite could support many different types of client payloads during its operational lifetime.<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.citizensinspace.org\/2014\/03\/navy-research-may-hold-the-key-to-space-solar-power\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Using space-based solar power to meet our energy needs on Earth is not a new idea. Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little, Inc. described a space-based solar-power satellite concept in 1968, one year before Neal Armstrong walked on the … Continue reading