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Published November 2024 | Published
Journal Article Metadata-only

Wireless power transfer in space using flexible, lightweight, coherent arrays

Ayling, Alex1 ORCID icon
Fikes, Austin1 ORCID icon
Mizrahi, Oren S.1 ORCID icon
Wu, Ailec1 ORCID icon
Riazati, Raha1 ORCID icon
Brunet, Jesse1 ORCID icon
Abiri, Behrooz1 ORCID icon
Bohn, Florian1 ORCID icon
Gal-Katziri, Matan2 ORCID icon
Hashemi, Mohammed Reza M.1 ORCID icon
Padmanabhan, Sharmila3 ORCID icon
Russell, Damon3
Hajimiri, Ali1 ORCID icon
  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  • 3. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab

Abstract

Space solar power (SSP), envisioned for decades as a solution for continuous, stable, and dynamically dispatchable clean energy, has seen tremendous interest and a number of experimental demonstrations in the last few years. A practical implementation has been elusive to date, owing to the high launch costs associated with heavy, rigid photovoltaic and wireless power transfer (WPT) arrays. Lightweight and flexible solutions for WPT have been demonstrated terrestrially but, to date, have not been deployed and tested in space. In this paper, we present an experimental space demonstration of a lightweight, flexible WPT array powered by custom radio-frequency integrated circuits. The transmit arrays, receive arrays, and the rest of the system were operated and tested for eight months in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Results from these experiments, including pointing of the array’s beam to Earth and its detection by a ground station, are presented and discussed in detail. Observations and results from this mission uncover existing strengths and weaknesses that inform future steps towards realizing SSP.

Copyright and License

© 2024 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank R. Madonna, S. Pellegrino, H. Atwater, C. Sommer, E. Gdoutos, A. Truong, F. Wiesemüller, K. Ubamanyu, A. Cortez, M. Manohara, J. Pederson, M. Kelzenberg, A. Wen, J. Sauder, J. Rivera, H. Lim, E. Suh, W. Chun, A. Safaripour, M. Howard, H. Lambert, K. Spencer, A. Daniel, T. Roper, D. Johnson, and L. Day for their support, contributions, and discussions.
The authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project , without which this effort would not have been possible.

Contributions

Alex Ayling: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Austin Fikes: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation. Oren S. Mizrahi: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Ailec Wu: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Raha Riazati: Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft, Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Software. Jesse Brunet: Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Behrooz Abiri: Resources, Software, Validation. Florian Bohn: Resources, Software. Matan Gal-Katziri: Resources, Software. Mohammed Reza M. Hashemi: Resources. Sharmila Padmanabhan: Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision. Damon Russell: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation. Ali Hajimiri: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Additional details

Funding Dates Caltech Custom Metadata
Created:
November 5, 2024
Modified:
November 5, 2024