Submitted by Aerothermal t3_zlx9on in Futurology
Another example; Recently at Airbus X-Works Innovation Factory in Munich, a key technology for space-based solar power was used to produce hydrogen. The technology was also used to light up a model city, and to cool a non-alcoholic beer in a connected fridge, before it was served to the watching audience. The work was highlighted today (9 November) by the European Space Agency (ESA), which plans to investigate key SBSP technologies through its Solaris Initiative. IMechE, Nov 2022
This work was linked to ESAs Solaris, where the space agency "envision a Europe and world where clean, abundant, secure, safe and affordable energy is available to everyone."
The language here and that intended purpose is just so abhorrently gross.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Aerothermal:
Northrop Grumman unveils their wireless power project 'Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research' (SSPIDR). It is being sold on its military applications for providing power to forward operating and contested areas, where warfighters need steady power to maintain mission operations. Consider the attacks on ground infrastructure in Ukraine, coupled with the force multiplier of UAVs, and the inherently short dwell time. Every problem is an opportunity to capitalize. Consider how powerful it would be to have mobile generators beaming power and keeping drones in the sky loitering potentially indefinitely. The Airbus Zephyr shown through solar power that it can be done, staying in the air for over 2 months at a time albeit with a huge wingspan and lots of solar cells.
This year Airbus demonstrated solar power beaming, with the idea of delivering concentrated power from space. Couple this with modern warfare developing 'teaming' or swarms of manned and unmanned vehicles and aircraft operating together.
The missile manufacturer MBDA unveiled a similar vision for the Future Combat Air System.
Lockheed Martin have been on it too for at least a decade, where they demonstrated laser power beaming to keep drones fully charged.
DARPA too have a similar project called Electric Sky which was in the media last year.
Startups are capitalizing on this emerging market too, such as the UK-based Space Power.
Then there's space exploration applications. NASA has ran several projects to develop visible light and laser power distribution, for UAVs, and for wireless charging for moon robots.
Medium/long range wireless power distribution is no longer sci-fi, it's starting to become serious business.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zlx9on/northrop_grummans_wireless_power_distribution/j07ovby/
The world needs to buy the rights to this tech and worldize power.
Eh. If this works it will be a very expensive and probably dangerous way to transmit power. Only really applicable if you're the military and operating in a specific place at a specific time is far more important than cost.
Big whoop….they did that in James Bond’s The Man With the Golden Gun in the 60s.
Getting some serious Sim City 2000 vibes. Think I’m gonna go play it again.
You might not have read the submission comment. It includes non-military applications in space exploration, e.g. NASA exploring this for wireless power distribution on the Moon. We are going back to the moon after all. And my comment underneath links to ESA solaris, which is about energy distribution for everyone.
I didn't elaborate on the numerous satellite applications. It turns out, that energy generation and storage is very heavy and expensive on satellites, and solar only works effectively on the day side of planets. With wireless power distribution, you could have neighboring satellites beaming power to lighter weight small satellites and extending their mission life. Or you could have satellites charging even whilst in the shadow of a planetary body. Perhaps we could have radio telescopes set up on the dark side of the moon in craters, isolated from Earth's radio interference, and get extra power down to them from orbit.
My point is, this isn't tech that will bring cheap power to the masses. It'll be an incredibly expensive way to get power to where it's currently impossible. Which isn't to say it's bad, it's just not going to "worldize power."
the Poors: a smile threatens to erupt across their face the Elite: slaps hand NOT FOR YOU DUMMY
So ready for the most powerful military on earth to own a death ray
never worked for me in SimCity 2000. The beam would always miss and take out half of the city.
One of my favorite games to this day.
OH GOD SPIDERS IN SPACE?! NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. loudly cocks a SpaceX rocket. Seriously though, did they have to name it spidr? I fucking hate spiders...
Cities: Skylines is a pretty awesome modern equivalent.
If death rays were feasible, we'd have them or already do have them. This has to do with powering up the death ray anywhere in Earth's gravitational sphere of influence at a moment's notice.
And yet, worldize we MUST
Do you want space-based laser cannons? Because this is how you get space-based laser cannons.
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Awesome. Thanks for the tip!
You still have to build a receiving station. Why not build a generator? I fail to see the use case here especially considering even if they develop the technology it will still be pretty inefficient and if it can deliver truly useful power it will be trivial to turn it into a weapon.
There are intrinsic problems with the idea.
literally only happened in the one scenario.
Air strikes will cost a lot less now at least, saving taxpayer dollars /s
Do you remember a few years back when MIT Engineers made headlines by flying a small plane that had no moving parts?
Imagine what you could do with that if you had a constant, uninterrupted power supply coming from orbit.
Also, it would be neat to have a sort of "emergency power" system where small planes, boats or stranded persons can get a small, uninterrupted supply of electricity that could be of critical use in dangerous situations.
It's literally a James Bond 007 movie plot.
Use the GPS network, add some big A mirrors or reflectors and concentrate or bounce the suns rays around and focus them on one point! Dr evil would be melting the ice caps
The U.S. can shoot down missiles with lasers. That much power can definitely kill a person at range.
I’m pretty sure we already have death rays on some of our floating military bases. This sounds like a charging station.
Americans understand the best use of our money is absurdity to the point of intimidation. I joked about this with my mom when we couldn’t afford her chemotherapy /s
Lasers are finally getting strong enough to make space-based solar-powered weapons platforms something that can be prototyped... the tech to usefully absorb power lasers scross space would be neat if it was cheaper than big batteries or fission cells.
Call me suspicious, but a space based power distribution system from a company that makes missles sure sounds like a freekin space laser to evaporiate targets.
I remember reading Asimov using this concept. I, Robot I think?
This is an incredibly foolish and dangerous path for energy generation for so many reasons. On top of being incredibly inefficient for power delivery.
Because with a generator you have to constantly bring more fuel. With this you can have supply line free electricity with just a relatively small receiver.
Any real amount of power delivered by this will need more than a small receiver. Just being in a sidelobe or getting hit by a reflection would cook you so there will have to be a fairly large no go zone around it. Even the best directed arrays in space have serious divergence.
Aerothermal OP t1_j07ovby wrote
Northrop Grumman unveils their wireless power project 'Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research' (SSPIDR). It is being sold on its military applications for providing power to forward operating and contested areas, where warfighters need steady power to maintain mission operations. Consider the attacks on ground infrastructure in Ukraine, coupled with the force multiplier of UAVs, and the inherently short dwell time. Every problem is an opportunity to capitalize. Consider how powerful it would be to have mobile generators beaming power and keeping drones in the sky loitering potentially indefinitely. The Airbus Zephyr shown through solar power that it can be done, staying in the air for over 2 months at a time albeit with a huge wingspan and lots of solar cells.
This year Airbus demonstrated solar power beaming, with the idea of delivering concentrated power from space. Couple this with modern warfare developing 'teaming' or swarms of manned and unmanned vehicles and aircraft operating together.
The missile manufacturer MBDA unveiled a similar vision for the Future Combat Air System.
Lockheed Martin have been on it too for at least a decade, where they demonstrated laser power beaming to keep drones fully charged.
DARPA too have a similar project called Electric Sky which was in the media last year.
Startups are capitalizing on this emerging market too, such as the UK-based Space Power.
Then there's space exploration applications. NASA has ran several projects to develop visible light and laser power distribution, for UAVs, and for wireless charging for moon robots.
Medium/long range wireless power distribution is no longer sci-fi, it's starting to become serious business.