Could solar panels in space power Army operations on Earth?
By Nathan Strout
Sep 24, 04:35 PM
WASHINGTON — It’s hard to run an extension cord to a forward operating base.
Military outposts need a lot of power, but they’re frequently located in places without easy access to electricity. The U.S. Army can’t exactly build a field of solar arrays every time it sets up shop in remote locales, and fossil fuels can be expensive and difficult to transport out to the field.
What the Army needs is an energy source it can tap into from anywhere on Earth with limited infrastructure, and the Air Force Research Laboratory believes it might just have the solution: A constellation of satellite-mounted solar arrays that can collect energy on orbit and beam it down to Earth. Terrestrial service members would be able to plug into that energy source from anywhere on the planet with mobile equipment, enabling them to power an entire forward operating base or simply charge a radio.
https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/air-force-association/2021/09/24/could-solar-panels-in-space-power-army-operations-on-earth/
