Using a small 50 kg satellite
While Japan is just about to try to transfer energy from space to Earth in 2025 , scientists from the California Institute of Technology unexpectedly announced that they had already carried out such an experiment, and it was successful.
The experimental orbital installation Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), weighing only 50 kg, was sent into space in January. This device collected energy through solar panels, and then transmitted it to Earth in the form of microwave radiation. Unfortunately, scientists do not yet specify what power they managed to achieve, and in general there are few details about the experiment.
US first time in history managed to transfer energy from space to Earth
Unless the authors of the project pay much attention to their light and flexible microwave transmitters, which, apparently, are the know-how of the scientists of the project. As stated in the press release, by using constructive and destructive interference between individual transmitters, a group of energy transmitters is able to shift the focus and direction of radiated energy without any moving parts. The transmitter array uses precise timing controls to dynamically selectively focus power at the right location through the coherent addition of electromagnetic waves. This allows you to transfer most of the energy to the right place and nowhere else.
To our knowledge, no one has ever demonstrated wireless power transmission in space, even with expensive rigid structures. We do this with flexible, lightweight designs and our own integrated circuits. This is the first time
It should be noted separately that in the first place the experiment involved the transfer of energy not to the Earth, but from one transmitter to another within the orbital module itself at a distance of only 30 cm. This part of the experiment was successful, since the energy received was used to turn on the LEDs. However, scientists also managed to send energy to Earth, but, apparently, we are talking about a very low power, not related to any commercial application.
