The achievement was made by MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment), an array of flexible lightweight microwave power transmitters with precise timing control.
MAPLE is one of the three experiments carried out by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as part of its Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), an ambitious plan to deploy a constellation of space solar panels that could harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.
"Through the experiments we have run so far, we received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space," said Ali Hajimiri, Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering and co-director of SSPP.
"We have also been able to program the array to direct its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech. We had, of course, tested it on Earth, but now we know that it can survive the trip to space and operate there."...