Orbital Composites and Virtus Solis are collaborating to construct a satellite constellation that will transmit solar power to ground stations on Earth.
published in March by Virtus, a satellite constellation operating in Molniya orbit, or a highly elliptical orbit, will beam the solar power to Earth.
The companies will launch hexagonal-shaped satellites into space using reusable rockets, after which robots will snap the satellites together into a circular array that , when completed, will be anywhere from 0.3 to 1.9 miles, or 0.5 to 3 kilometers, wide. These arrays will then transmit power to ground stations 1.2 miles in diameter and“This partnership is a significant step towards providing clean, low-cost energy to our planet and unlocking the potential of cislunar space,” said Virtus Solis CEO John Bucknell in a press release.
Collecting solar power in space and beaming it down to planet Earth might seem like a farfetched idea, but researchers from the California Institute of Technology made a huge leap with the technology earlier this monthpower transfer experiment using the Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment, or MAPLE, which is a small prototype aboard the in-orbit Space Solar Power Demonstrator that launched this past. The SSPD-1 collects solar energy, converts it to DC electricty, and transmits it using constructive and destructive interference.
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