Solar panels on Earth already provide us with a clean source of energy, but they’re practically useless when it gets dark, so scientists in California presented a solution: sending solar panels into space, so they could harness the sun’s energy 24/7.
MAPLE is equipped with solar panels that can withstand the harsh environment of space, including wild temperature fluctuations and solar radiation.
“Space solar,” a concept pioneered by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1941, can produce eight times more power than solar panels anywhere on Earth.
The project is led by Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), which aims to harvest solar energy in space and transfer it to the Earth’s surface as a sustainable source of energy.
Experts hope it will offer a better green alternative to fossil fuels and even renewables such as geothermal, wind and nuclear.
“With the experiments we have conducted so far, we have received confirmation that MAPLE can successfully transfer power to receivers in space,” said Ali Hajimiri, a professor of electrical engineering at Caltech.
“We were also able to program the array to direct its energy towards Earth, which is what we discovered here at Caltech,” Hajimere added. “We tested it, of course, on Earth, but we now know that it can survive the trip to space and work there.”
Solar panels on Earth are made up of several “solar cells”, small devices that convert radiation from the sun into electricity.
Solar cells have been on Earth since the late 19th century and currently generate about 4% of the world’s electricity, in addition to powering the International Space Station.
But critics of the technology point out that they don’t often work in a country with overcast weather. Other problems with the technology in general are that these panels take up a lot of space and can be aesthetically unimpressive.
For these reasons, the Caltech team developed MAPLE, short for Microwave Array for Low Orbit Energy Transfer Experiment, which was launched aboard the Transporter-6 mission from Cape Canaveral.
The team says MAPLE consists of a suite of flexible, lightweight microwave energy transmitters powered by electronic chips made using low-cost silicon.
It must be flexible so that it can be folded into a package that can be transported in a rocket and then unfolded once in orbit.
MAPLE transmitters convert solar energy into a form that can travel to Earth, such as a laser or, in this case, microwaves, and an array of transmitters can send the energy to desired locations, such as a receiving station on the ground feeding the power into the national grid.
The academics envision an eventual “constellation” of spacecraft that would collect sunlight and convert it into electricity, then transmit that electricity wirelessly over long distances to where it is needed.
This could be particularly important for places that do not currently have access to reliable power, and it is not clear what will happen to the now orbiting MAPLE spacecraft, or whether it will form the basis of this constellation.
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