The US Air Force wants to beam solar power to Earth from space

[thackney]

The US Air Force wants to beam solar power to Earth from space
https://www.space.com/space-based-solar-power-air-force-sspidr-project

...The AFRL envisions sunlight-harvesting satellites equipped with innovative "sandwich tiles," which will convert solar energy into radio frequency (RF) power and beam it to Earth. Down here, receiving antennas will transform that RF energy into usable power.

The AFRL won't build such an operational system, but it hopes to pave the way toward it with SSPIDR, a series of ground and flight experiments that help mature the required technologies.

For example, one SSPIDR experiment, known as Arachne, will test power conversion and beaming in space using a sandwich tile built by project partner Northrop Grumman. Arachne is scheduled to launch to Earth orbit in 2024.

SSPIDR also includes experiments called SPINDLE and SPIRRAL, which will demonstrate the orbital deployment of a scaled-down version of a power-beaming satellite and test ways to keep satellite temperatures in a manageable range, respectively.

SPINDLE is scheduled to launch in 2023 on Alpha Space's Materials International Space Station Experiment Flight Facility, which is designed to be deployed outside the International Space Station....

[BassWrangler]

Sounds like it could do double duty as a space-based weapon.

[catfish1957]

Sounds like it could do double duty as a space-based weapon.

Versus buying off on the Climate Change scam?  You bet....

[BassWrangler]

Versus buying off on the Climate Change scam?  You bet....

I agree that it's a scam. I mean I don't think there is some cabal that sits around and plans it, but I do believe that the science got politicized so that researchers only pursue pro-AGW theories and are under great temptation to tamper with data.

But all that said, I would love it if we had a cheap and plentiful source of power outside of fossil fuels. Save the oil for plastics and other petrochemical based products.

[Cyber Liberty]

Why do I keep imagining being an ant under a magnifying glass in the sun?

[BassWrangler]

Why do I keep imagining being an ant under a magnifying glass in the sun?

Or a roach in the microwave

[thackney]

Why do I keep imagining being an ant under a magnifying glass in the sun?

That was the image I had.

[Sled Dog]

Sounds like the Congress has to cut the Air Force Acronym Budget, the AFAB.

The idea of beaming microwaves back to earth from solar power satellites in orbit is at least 50 years old.

And there's nothing like placing the nation's power infrastructure in delicate and vulnerable orbiting spacecraft that are both easy to shoot down and totally destructive to ground-based astronomy.

Sooo....an 8 kw solar array in space is typically an array 5 meters by 4 meters, 20 square meters.   Thus an 8 MW array would be 20,000 square meters.   

Naturally an array of this size is going to be shoved around by the solar wind and simple light pressure.    Figure in some serious attitude adjusting and station keeping fuel on board, not to mention the vast radiators to shed the waste heat from converting the solar input into the microwave beam.   Lots of inefficiency there to show up as unwanted heat.  Will this monster be serviced regularly, or is it a throw-away?

Regardless, how is this gigantic thing going to be discarded at it's end of life?  Typically LEO satellites are boosted to GEO, thrust into the atmosphere to burn, or left to rot in place, which typically means a random descent at a random time in the future onto a random piece of the earth's surface.

Now, shall we talk about the expense of making such massive deployables, both the solar wings and the radiator panels?   Gotta fold them up to fit into the launcher fairing.  Gotta unfold them, after.  Which means gotta test the living crap out of them on the ground.   Which means towering piles of money.

[Sled Dog]

I agree that it's a scam. I mean I don't think there is some cabal that sits around and plans it, but I do believe that the science got politicized so that researchers only pursue pro-AGW theories and are under great temptation to tamper with data.

But all that said, I would love it if we had a cheap and plentiful source of power outside of fossil fuels. Save the oil for plastics and other petrochemical based products.

We do.   It's called nuclear power.    First, kill all the lawyers, and suddenly nuclear fission is inexpensive and still safe.

[Joe Wooten]

Sounds like the Congress has to cut the Air Force Acronym Budget, the AFAB.

The idea of beaming microwaves back to earth from solar power satellites in orbit is at least 50 years old.

And there's nothing like placing the nation's power infrastructure in delicate and vulnerable orbiting spacecraft that are both easy to shoot down and totally destructive to ground-based astronomy.

Sooo....an 8 kw solar array in space is typically an array 5 meters by 4 meters, 20 square meters.   Thus an 8 MW array would be 20,000 square meters.   

Naturally an array of this size is going to be shoved around by the solar wind and simple light pressure.    Figure in some serious attitude adjusting and station keeping fuel on board, not to mention the vast radiators to shed the waste heat from converting the solar input into the microwave beam.   Lots of inefficiency there to show up as unwanted heat.  Will this monster be serviced regularly, or is it a throw-away?

Regardless, how is this gigantic thing going to be discarded at it's end of life?  Typically LEO satellites are boosted to GEO, thrust into the atmosphere to burn, or left to rot in place, which typically means a random descent at a random time in the future onto a random piece of the earth's surface.

Now, shall we talk about the expense of making such massive deployables, both the solar wings and the radiator panels?   Gotta fold them up to fit into the launcher fairing.  Gotta unfold them, after.  Which means gotta test the living crap out of them on the ground.   Which means towering piles of money.

Not to mention that a really big array would need to be in a synchronous orbit to simplify station keeping, which means heavy radiation exposure for the crew servicing it.