Space-based solar power could provide round-the-clock access to renewable energy, sidestepping one of the technology’s biggest limitations. Now the idea is going to get its first true test after a Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched experimental hardware designed to assess its feasibility.
The idea of stationing gigantic solar panels in orbit around Earth and beaming the power back has been around for decades. The possibility is attractive, because in space you’re no longer at the mercy of the weather or the planet’s cycles of day and night, and solar radiation levels are higher as sunlight has not had to pass through the atmosphere.
So far though, space-based solar power has remained in the realm of sci-fi due to the technical complexity and unforgiving economics of space technologies. But thanks to a $100 million donation in 2013, a multidisciplinary team from Caltech has been quietly working on it over the past decade, developing the various technologies required to make it a reality. And this past Tuesday, prototypes of some of the key subsystems required for a full-scale space-based solar power plant were delivered into orbit by SpaceX for testing.
Over the next few months, the team behind the Caltech Space Solar Power Project will test out the systems that will allow their flexible solar panels to unfurl in space and the technology designed to transmit power back to Earth. They will also assess how well different kinds of solar panel technologies hold up in the harsh environment of space.
“No matter what happens, this prototype is a major step forward,” Ali Hajimiri, one of the three Caltech professors leading the project, said in a statement. “It works here on Earth, and has passed the rigorous steps required of anything launched into space. There are still many risks, but having gone through the whole process has taught us valuable lessons.”
Building solar panels in space is a much more complicated business than doing so on Earth. The biggest challenge is getting them there in the first place, which is limited by the incredible cost of launching material into orbit. As a result, the team has had to focus …….