The prototype spacecraft will test how solar power can be generated from orbit and sent wirelessly back to Earth.
On January 3, researchers at Caltech successfully launched the Space Solar Power Demonstrator , a prototype spacecraft designed to gather the sun's energy without the atmosphere and day-night cycle getting in the way. The spacecraft will send this energy back to Earth usingSolar panels on Earth work by converting sunlight directly into electric power using the photovoltaic effect. Here, photons knock electrons off the atoms in the silicon photovoltaic cells, generating a flow of electricity.
"To me, the major challenge is indeed to get the power back to Earth without huge losses or other problems ," Kevin E. Trenberth, a climate scientist and Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told"This should not be a problem in space, where there is no air, but as soon as air atoms and molecules get in the way, scattering takes place."
"Some parts of the Earth, such as the subtropics, have less water vapor and provide windows of sorts but I do not know how those can be targeted or used productively on a rotating planet. Now this can be partly avoided by changing the solar energy into microwave energy that can be transmitted more readily through the atmosphere unless raindrops or particles get in the way.
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