Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 18 subscribers
  • Views 60 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in

Is space‑based power transmission the next big infrastructure challenge for engineers?

Lisa Miles

I came across an interesting piece of recent engineering news about US start‑up Star Catcher Industries securing funding to develop what it’s calling the world’s first space‑based energy grid. The idea is to use optical power beaming (laser transmission) to deliver energy on demand to satellites in low‑Earth orbit, rather than relying solely on on‑board solar arrays and batteries.

According to the company, this approach could allow satellites to access significantly more usable power than they generate themselves, which could be a big enabler for power‑hungry applications such as communications constellations, Earth observation, in‑orbit computing and future human spaceflight.  You can read the full E&T article here: https://eandt.theiet.org/2026/05/22/world-s-first-power-grid-space-set-be-reality-star-catcher-secures-65m 

I’d be really interested to hear views from our engineering community on a few angles. From an engineering standpoint, how viable is optical power beaming in orbit in terms of efficiency and pointing accuracy?
What safety, regulatory or interference challenges would need to be addressed before this could scale? How does this compare with advances in battery technology, on‑board generation and energy storage? Could space‑based power distribution eventually become as fundamental as terrestrial grids, and if so, who should design, own and govern it?

Parents

  • Their system they are proposing to build first is reasonably practical - being fresnel lenses and accurately controlled moving mirrors.  A large part of the problem with existing satellites is the fraction of the time they spend round the back of the earth and therefore not well lit. Batteries and solar arrays have to be sized to run and charge when lit, in readiness for the dark.
    The idea of beaming in some top up sunlight from another orbit is very attractive and with accurate enough beam forming reasonably practical.  There are limits set by diffraction and pointing accuracy that means quite a lot will be lost, but in space, making things big by duplication is not that much of a problem. 

    The idea of converting sunlight to electricity (losing most), then using lasers to take electricity back to light again, (once again losing most) then to fire that at solar panels has less use, unless perhaps you want to run quite low power satellites that are deliberately made unusually small and hard to see, so a solar panel would be too much of a giveaway.    The main use of lasers I would have thought would be for ranging and tracking; giving mirrors something to be targeted on, and for sat to sat comms, as Starlink already do.

    Its space, so once its up there, the regulation issues are less serious - its not James Bond Icarus level stuff  after all. problems will be decommissioning safely and depending on quantity, how many orbital slots there are.

    I can also see astronomers not being that keen on extra bright spots.
    M.

Reply

  • Their system they are proposing to build first is reasonably practical - being fresnel lenses and accurately controlled moving mirrors.  A large part of the problem with existing satellites is the fraction of the time they spend round the back of the earth and therefore not well lit. Batteries and solar arrays have to be sized to run and charge when lit, in readiness for the dark.
    The idea of beaming in some top up sunlight from another orbit is very attractive and with accurate enough beam forming reasonably practical.  There are limits set by diffraction and pointing accuracy that means quite a lot will be lost, but in space, making things big by duplication is not that much of a problem. 

    The idea of converting sunlight to electricity (losing most), then using lasers to take electricity back to light again, (once again losing most) then to fire that at solar panels has less use, unless perhaps you want to run quite low power satellites that are deliberately made unusually small and hard to see, so a solar panel would be too much of a giveaway.    The main use of lasers I would have thought would be for ranging and tracking; giving mirrors something to be targeted on, and for sat to sat comms, as Starlink already do.

    Its space, so once its up there, the regulation issues are less serious - its not James Bond Icarus level stuff  after all. problems will be decommissioning safely and depending on quantity, how many orbital slots there are.

    I can also see astronomers not being that keen on extra bright spots.
    M.

Children
No Data

Community Rules & Guidelines