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CHAPTER 1
Introduction

“Energy is one of the most fundamental components of nature. Energy

demonstrates its importance in human society from calorie-filled food at dinner to wars
over oil in the Middle-East. The beauty of energy is embodied in the simple glow of a
flame or a gentle ripple from a leaf falling upon water. Its ugly face is seen in the
pollution caused by utilizing fossil fuels, processing nuclear fuel, and manufacturing
solar cells”.
The growth of mankind with a cumulative degree of industrialization will
desirably lead to increased living standards for the whole population on Earth.
Connected to this goal of social development is a minimum level of energy production.
Today, some two billion have no access to electricity. In 2030, eight billion people (or
more) will be part of mankind. Thus the increasing need for energy cannot be met by
fossil sources alone, with perceived threats to the climate. The United States and the
world need to find new sources of clean energy in the near future. With oil supplies
decreasing and prices increasing, the pros and cons of other energy sources are debated
worldwide every day (Fig.1).

Figure 1- Energy growth tracks with population & economic growth

These future energy sources have to meet two demands: they must be
greenhouse gas neutral, and they have to be available long-term. The solar energy
available in space is literally billions of times greater than the energy we use today. The

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lifetime of the sun is an estimated 4-5 billion years, making space solar power a truly
long-term energy solution. Space solar power gathers energy from sunlight in space and
transmits it wirelessly to Earth. Space solar power can solve our energy and greenhouse
gas emissions problems. Moreover, space solar power can provide large quantities of
energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact.
A National Security Space Office (NSSO) study concluded in October of 2007
that “The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems is significant
enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include ... space-based solar power.”
This NSSO report also concluded that SSP has “enormous potential for energy security,
economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general
space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess
a (SSP) capability.”
According to the National Space Society, another need for such technology is
to move away from fossil fuels for our transportation system. While electricity powers
few vehicles today, hybrids will soon evolve into plug-in hybrids which can use electric
energy from the grid. As batteries, super-capacitors, and fuel cells improve, the gasoline
engine will gradually play a smaller and smaller role in transportation, but only if we
can generate enormous quantities of electrical energy. It does not help to remove fossil
fuels from vehicles if one uses fossil fuels again to generate the electricity to power
those vehicles. Space solar power can provide the needed clean power for any future
electric transportation system.
Furthermore, wireless power-transmission technology, originally developed for SSP, is
receiving interest in land-based systems, including wireless battery charging for electric
vehicles and power transmission to remote islands and isolated locations.
Jenkins, (2009) stated that Space-Based Solar energy is an enormous project. It
might be considered comparable in scale to the national railroad, highway system,
projects rather than the Manhattan or Apollo endeavors. However, unlike such national
projects, this project also has components that are analogous to the development of the
high volume international civil aviation system. Such a large endeavor includes
significant international and environmental implications. As such, it would require a
corresponding amount of political will to realize its benefits.

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CHAPTER 2
Literature Survey
Glaser, Peter E. (1973) was granted U.S. patent number 3,781,647 for his
method of transmitting power over long distances (e.g. from an SPS to Earth's surface)
using microwaves from a very large antenna (up to one square kilometer) on the satellite
to a much larger one, now known as a rectenna, on the ground. Glaser then was a vice
president at Arthur D. Little; Inc. NASA signed a contract with ADL to lead four
other companies in a broader study in 1974. They found that, while the concept had
several major problems – chiefly the expense of putting the required materials in orbit
and the lack of experience on projects of this scale in space – it showed enough promise
to merit further investigation and research.
In 1997, NASA conducted its "Fresh Look" study to examine the modern state
of SBSP feasibility. NASA asserted that: US National Space Policy now calls for
NASA to make significant investments in technology to drive the costs of ETO [Earth
to Orbit] transportation down dramatically. This is, of course, an absolute requirement
of space solar power.
On Nov 2, 2012, China proposed space collaboration with India that mentioned
SBSP, Space-based Solar Power initiative so that both India and China can work for
long term association with proper funding along with other willing space faring nations
to bring space solar power to earth.
In 1999, NASA's Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology
program (SERT) was initiated. SERT went about developing a solar power satellite
(SPS) concept for a future Gigawatt space power system, to provide electrical power
by converting the Sun’s energy and beaming it to Earth's surface, and provided a
conceptual development path that would utilize current technologies .
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has "been the subject of many
previous studies and the stuff of sci-fi for decades, but space-based solar power could
at last become a reality—and within 25 years, according to a proposal from researchers"
there which is noted in the May 2014 IEEE Spectrum magazine has a lengthy article
"It's Always Sunny in Space" by Dr. Susumu Sasaki. JAXA announced on 12 March
2015 that they wirelessly beamed 1.8 kilowatts 50 meters to a small receiver by
converting electricity to microwaves and then back to electricity. This is the standard

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plan for this type of power. On 12 March 2015 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
demonstrated transmission of 10 kilowatts (kW) of power to a receiver unit located at
a distance of 500 meters away.

2.1 The Concept

Space based solar power was a term devised by Dr. Peter Glaser in 1968 as an
answer to overcome the limit that Earth based solar panels have, they produce no power
during nightfall. As a result, the potential power generation is cut by half before even
considering the efficiency of the solar polar and any further conversion efficiency (such
as DC to AC). Additionally, with the lack of atmosphere to partially block solar
radiation, the available power per square meter is increased from roughly 1000W/m2
on Earth to 1367W/m2 (Lindsey, 2009). Thus, he had the idea to instead move the solar
panel off Earth and into space in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.

Figure 2- Drawing from U.S Patent visualizing Dr. Peter Glaser's SBSP
system
As the satellite is in geosynchronous orbit, the satellite will be orbiting around
the Earth in synchronization with the Earth’s spin, causing the satellite to remain above
a certain point on the Earth’s surface. For this to be possible, the satellite would have
to be over 35,000km above the surface of the earth.

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Figure 3- Illustration showing the shadow casted by the Sun being blocked by the
Earth. This region is mostly avoided due to geosynchronous orbit of the satellite.

As the Earth’s rotational axis is tilted by around 23°, the satellite would escape
the Earth’s umbra (which is the shadow casted by the Earth rotating around the Sun.
This means that the satellite would almost never be in total darkness, essentially
doubling the potential power output that could be obtained from Earth with the same
area of solar panels.

2.2 Precedence of Technology

Whilst there has never been a large-scale satellite launched with the purpose of
generating and transmitting energy for consumption on Earth, many satellites launched
into space that are expected to be used for decades are equipped with an array of solar
panels to power on-board instruments. The most iconic being the International Space
Station.
Launched in 1998, the International Space Station was launched to be a modular
space laboratory which has had multiple modules attached onto it since then. As of
2017, the ISS has the capability of generating around 120kW of power. The station
itself uses around 40% of this power generated to operate the all the instruments and

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technologies within the satellite and the rest is used to charge on-board batteries that
come online when the station in the umbra of Earth. Since the addition of modules up
to 2017, the cost of the whole satellite has been estimated to be around $100 billion,
which was shared between all participating countries over 30 years (ESA, 2013).

Figure 4- A view from the ISS of one of its solar panel array "wings"
(Loff, 2015)

2.3 Wireless Transmission of Energy

Since the discovery of electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves by Heinrich
Hertz in the late 19th century, it had been theorized that it may be possible to use it as
a medium to transfer energy from one point to another (Shinohara, 2014). Tesla was
one of the first to theories that power could be transmitted wirelessly which gave birth
to the concept of the World Wireless System. The proposed World Wireless System
would allow power to be transmitted without the use of wires but instead using a
focused beam of ultra violet radiation, by utilizing the ionosphere and Earth as
conductors, whilst using the lower dense atmosphere as the inductor (Benson, 1920).
This idea fell through, however, due to lack of funding and the limitations of ultraviolet
spotlights in their ability to produce enough ionized pathways.

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Figure 5- An illustration showing the World Wireless System, which Tesla hoped
would be used to transmit power from one point to another, even flying aircraft
(Benson, 1920)
Whilst Tesla’s experiment failed, the concept of wireless power transmission
was revived post World War II, with the development of high power and efficient
microwave tubes necessary for the advancement of radar technology during the war.
This opened the opportunity to take a different approach to wireless power transmission
that involved the use of microwaves as a medium to transfer energy in a focused beam
directly to a rectifying antenna, which would go on to covert this microwave beam to
electrical energy at the receiving end. Whilst at that time, it was researched as a
potential method for transmitting power to troops in remote locations, it has become an
integral part of space based solar power.

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CHAPTER 3
What is Space Solar Power and How It Works?
Solar Energy is captured in space by large photovoltaic arrays and transmitted via a
coherent microwave or laser beam to an Earth receiver where it is converted into either
base-load electric power, low-intensity charging power, or synthetic fuels. There are
some different proposals and studies for improving and describing the system. An
artist’s rendering these proposals can be seen in Figs. 6 & 7.
The system uses photovoltaic cell arrays in geostationary orbit 36,000 km above the
surface of the Earth to generate power. The power is converted into a microwave or
laser beam aimed at receiving stations on Earth. By directing the beam, power can be
collected safely by a rectenna and converted into electricity for commercial power
grids.

Figure 6- Selected Past Solar Power Satellite Concepts and 2 Versions of

the New SPS-ALPHA Concept

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Figure 7- Satellite Concept of Operation.

To ensure its safety, there would be restricted access to the rectenna and the
airspace over it. In the event of an on-orbit system malfunction, a redundant beam
controller would prevent the beam from hitting areas other than the rectenna. In space,

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solar energy could be collected continually, regardless of weather and time of the day,
enabling stable, efficient power generation.
Vallbracht, (2011) proposed that the space-based portion of the system should
consist of a constellation of solar energy harvesting satellites (referred to as Sunset’s).
These would collect solar power and transmit the energy via a 5.8 GHz beam back to
Earth. Initially, there will be eight of these satellites located in various geostationary
orbits (GEO) corresponding to their matching ground station. This will later expand to
include eight more satellites during the second phase and will be modularly expandable
afterwards. On Earth, ground stations featuring large rectennas will be capable of
converting the broadcasted microwave frequency back into DC power. Once converted
DC, the power will then be transformed into AC and pumped into the electrical grid, at
which point its use becomes transparent to the end-user.
Over all, the SSP System essentially consists of three parts: a) A huge solar
collector typically made of solar cells, b) A microwave antenna on the satellite aimed
at earth, and c) An antenna (rectenna) occupying a large area on earth to collect power.
Sunlight captured in space is many times more effective in providing continuous base
load power compared to a solar array on the Earth (Fig. 8).

Figure 8- Typical SSP design on left, Sample design of the Rectenna on top right
& on down right shows the effectiveness of solar array on space compared to
those on the earth.

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CHAPTER 4
Technical and Economic Evaluation

4.1 Solar Power Satellite Design

Whilst there have been many different designs propositioned for solar power
satellites (SPS) all designs have three parts in common: solar panels to convert solar
energy to electrical energy an array of mirrors to reflect solar energy onto the
photovoltaic array, and a microwave transmitter that uses the converted electrical
energy to send a focused microwave beam down perpendicular to the Earth’s surface.
Here are a few of the designs that were prepositioned.

Figure 9- Diagram showing the most common design for SPS systems
This is the most popular type of Solar Power Satellite, where two large arrays
mirrors reflect solar energy to a set of smaller mirrors before being reflected onto a
photovoltaic array. Most designs that have been considered are some derivative of this
design. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a project to
develop a twenty-year plan to utilize space based solar power as a move to become less
dependent on nuclear energy (which took a large hit in reputation since Fukushima in
Japan).
The most recent design for a potential SPS released by NASA is SPS-ALPHA
which was modelled in 2012 (Mankins, 2012). The design allows for a greater
concentration of solar energy, captured via a greater surface area.

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Since the technical implications of the different designs is out with the scope of
the course, this will not be covered in this thesis.

Figure 10 - A rendering of NASA's SPS-ALPHA 2012 (Mankins, 2012)

4.2 Sizing Rectenna

As the purpose of this thesis is to analyses the potential in space based solar
power, it is important to size the system for it to be compared with what could be
achieved using a terrestrial energy system.

Incident Microwave Absorbed Power in Element DC Output as % of

Power (W) (W) Absorbed Power

0.1 0.085 56.5

0.4 0.375 74.30
0.6 0.573 77.80
2 1.997 86.12
4 3.998 88.45
5 4.992 89.06
8 7.958 90.54
Table 1- Table showing test results from NASA rectenna power loss
experiments (Brown, 1977)

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It was assumed that the whole system would be able to achieve an output power
of 1GW after reductions in power delivery from inefficiencies of all parts of the system.
The efficiency of the rectenna is completely untested at the scale of what would be
required for a space based solar power system. The highest ever recorded efficiency of
a microwave rectenna was 90.6% which was found when the input was 8W (Brown,
1977). The following table shows some of the results from the NASA’s tests on the loss
of rectenna elements based on computer simulation and measured data.
These results produced the following trend:

Figure 11 - Graph showing the trend in efficiency of rectennae with low

input power
The results show that increasing power seems to increase the efficiency of the
rectenna. However, the distance travelled by the incident microwave signal also has a
large effect on the power harvested by a rectenna.
A study by the Polytechnic University of Bucharest showed the relation
between distance and power harvested from the rectenna (Tudose and Voinescu, 2013).
The incident microwave signal had a power level of 100μW, of which the rectenna
could output 67μW at 20cm beyond this distance, the power output rapidly declined.
This is as expected however, as at low power, a larger portion of the microwave signal
is reflected and more likely to scatter off than to be absorbed by the rectenna (Mankins,
2012).

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Figure 12- Graph showing the trend in power output against the distance
between the incident and rectenna (Tudose and Voinescu, 2013)
There is a severe lack of data for high power transfers. Whilst there have been
ground breaking tests run by JAXA and Mitsubishi recently, there has not been any data
released on the efficiency reached during the tests. The closest to the required data available
is that of a test carried out by JAXA, where they stated they expected to be able to harvest
about 350W from 1.6kW microwave beam at 50m (Sasaki, 2014). This would make the
efficiency of the microwave beam to DC current conversion to be around 22%, which is
quite far from what would be required to make SBSP feasible. It should be noted however
that the test executed so far have been more a proof of concept than a focus improving the
efficiency of the technology.
Despite this, JAXA and NASA are aiming to reach a rectennae efficiency of at
least 85% (Mankins, 2011) before the launch of SBSP. For the purpose of this thesis, it
is assumed that the rectenna efficiency will be at 85%.

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CHAPTER 5
Solar Power Satellite (SPS) System

5.1 Solar Energy Conversion - Solar Photons to DC

Two basic methods of converting sunlight to electricity have been studied:
photovoltaic (PV) conversion, and solar dynamic (SD) conversion. Most analyses of
solar power satellites have focused on photovoltaic conversion (commonly known as
“solar cells”). Photovoltaic conversion uses semiconductor cells (e.g., silicon or gallium
arsenide) to directly convert photons into electrical power via a quantum mechanical
mechanism.

Figure 13- shows a design of Solar Power Satellite (SPS)

Photovoltaic cells are not perfect in practice, as material purity and processing
issues during production affect performance; each has been progressively improved for
some decades. Some new, thin-film approaches are less efficient (about 20% vs. 35%
for best in class in each case), but are much less expensive and generally lighter. In an
SPS implementation, photovoltaic cells will likely be rather different from the glass-
pane protected solar cell panels familiar to many from current terrestrial use, since they
will be optimized for weight, and will be designed to be tolerant to the space radiation
environment (it turns out fortuitously, that thin film silicon solar panels are highly
insensitive to ionizing radiation), but will not need to be encapsulated against corrosion
by the elements. They do not require the structural support required for terrestrial use,
where the considerable gravity and wind loading imposes structural requirements on
terrestrial implementations.

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5.2 Converting DC to Microwave Power

To convert the DC power to microwave for the transmission through antenna
towards the earth’s receiving antenna, microwave oscillators like Klystrons,
Magnetrons can be used. In transmission, an alternating current is created in the
elements by applying a voltage at the antenna terminals, causing the elements to radiate
an electromagnetic field.
The DC power must be converted to microwave power at the transmitting end
of the system by using microwave oven magnetron. The heat of microwave oven is the
high voltage system. The nucleus of high voltage system is the magnetron tube. The
magnetron is diode type electron tube, which uses the interaction of magnetic and
electric field in the complex cavity to produce oscillation of very high peak power. It
employs radial electric field, axial magnetic field, anode structure and a cylindrical
cathode.
The cylindrical cathode is surrounded by an anode with cavities and thus a radial
electric field will exist. The magnetic field due to two permanent magnets which are
added above and below the tube structure is axial. The upper magnet is North Pole and
lower magnet is South Pole. The electron moving through the space tends to build up a
magnetic field around itself. The magnetic field on right side is weakened because the
self-induced magnetic field has the effect of subtracting from the permanent magnetic
field. So the electron trajectory bends in that direction resulting in a circular motion of
travel to anode. This process begins with a low voltage being applied to the cathode,
which causes it to heat up. The temperature rise causes the emission of more electrons.
This cloud of electrons would be repelled away from the negatively charged cathode.
The distance and velocity of their travel would increase with the intensity of applied
voltage. Momentum is provided by negative 4000 V DC. This is produced by means of
voltage doubler circuit. The electrons blast off from cathode like tiny rocket.
As the electrons move towards their objective, they encounter the powerful
magnetic. The effect of permanent magnet tends to deflect the electrons away from the
anode. Due to the combined effect of electric and magnetic field on the electron
trajectory they revive to a path at almost right angle to their previous direction resulting
in an expanding circular orbit around the cathode, which eventually reaches the anode.
The whirling cloud of electrons forms a rotating pattern. Due to the interaction of this
rotating space chare wheel with the configuration of the surface of anode, an alternating

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current of very high frequency is produced in the resonant cavities of the anode. The
output is taken from one of these cavities through waveguide. The low cost and readily
available magnetron is used in ground.
The same principle would be used but a special magnetron would be developed
for space use. Because of the pulsed operation of these magnetrons they generate much
spurious noise. A solar power satellite operating with 10 GW of radiated power would
radiate a total power of one microwatt in a 400 Hz channel width.

5.3 Transmitting Antennae

Power transmission via radio waves can be made more directional, allowing
longer distance power beaming, with shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation,
typically in the microwave range. Power beaming using microwaves has been proposed
for the transmission of energy from orbiting solar power satellites to Earth and the
beaming of power to spacecraft leaving orbit has been considered.
The size of the components may be dictated by the distance from transmitter to receiver,
the wavelength and the Rayleigh criterion or diffraction limit, used in standard radio
frequency antenna design, which also applies to lasers. In addition to the Rayleigh
criterion Airy's diffraction limit is also frequently used to determine an approximate
spot size at an arbitrary distance from the aperture. The Rayleigh criterion dictates that
any radio wave, microwave or laser beam will spread and become weaker and diffuse
over distance; the larger the transmitter antenna or laser aperture compared to the
wavelength of radiation, the tighter the beam and the less it will spread as a function of
distance (and vice versa). Smaller antennae also suffer from excessive losses due to
side lobes. However, the concept of laser aperture considerably differs from an antenna.
Typically, a laser aperture much larger than the wavelength induces multi-mode
radiation and into a fiber or into space.
Ultimately, beam width is physically determined by diffraction due to the dish
size in relation to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation used to make the
beam. Microwave power beaming can be more efficient than lasers, and is less prone
to atmospheric attenuation caused by dust or water vapor losing atmosphere to vaporize
the water in contact.

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CHAPTER 6
Advantages & Challenges
6.1 Advantages
The SBSP concept is attractive because space has several major advantages over the
Earth's surface for the collection of solar power.
 There is no air in space, so collecting surfaces could receive much more intense
sunlight.
 Space solar power can be exported to virtually any place in the world, and its
energy can be converted for local needs.
 Collecting surfaces could receive much more intense sunlight, owing to the lack
of obstructions such as atmospheric gasses, clouds, dust and other weather
events. Consequently, the intensity in orbit is approximately 144% of the
maximum attainable intensity on Earth's surface.
 A satellite could be illuminated over 99% of the time, and be in Earth's shadow
a maximum of only 72 minutes per night at the spring and fall equinoxes at local
midnight. Orbiting satellites can be exposed to a consistently high degree of
solar radiation, generally for 24 hours per day, whereas the average earth surface
solar panels currently collect power for an average of 29% per day.
 Power could be relatively quickly redirected directly to areas that need it most.
A collecting satellite could possibly direct power on demand to different surface
locations based on geographical baseload or peak load power needs. Typical
contracts would be for baseload, continuous power, since peaking power is
ephemeral.
 Unlike oil, gas, ethanol, and coal plants, space solar power does not emit
greenhouse gases.
 Unlike bio-ethanol or bio-diesel, space solar power does not compete for
increasingly valuable farm land or depend on natural-gas-derived fertilizer.
Food can continue to be a major export instead of a fuel provider.
 Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power will not produce hazardous
waste, which needs to be stored and guarded for hundreds of years.

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 Unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants, space solar power is available 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, in huge quantities. It works regardless of cloud
cover, daylight, or wind speed.
 Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power does not provide easy targets
for terrorists.
 Unlike coal and nuclear fuels, space solar power does not require
environmentally problematic mining operations.
 Space solar power will provide true energy independence for the nations that
develop it, eliminating a major source of national competition for limited Earth-
based energy resources.

6.2 Challenges
 The large cost of launching a satellite into space.
 Space debris is a major hazard to large objects in space, and all large structures
such as SBSP systems have been mentioned as potential sources of orbital
debris.
 The energy required for producing and putting solar panels into space versus
the amount of energy generate. One of the solutions can be that we can utilize
the concept of space elevators.
 Space solar power development costs will be very large but its cost always needs
to be compared to the cost of not developing space solar power.

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CHAPTER 7
Conclusion
The increasing global energy demand is likely to continue for many decades as many
renewable energy sources are limited. The best alternative energy source is solar power,
which possesses many significant environmental advantages when compared to
alternative approaches to meet increasing the demands for energy on Earth.
Based on the recently completed “fresh look study”, space solar power concepts may
be ready to get implemented. Certainly solar power satellites should no longer be
envisioned as requiring unimaginably large investments on power production.
Space-Based Solar Power considers a strategic opportunity for America from points of
energy security, environmental security, national needs, and economic competitiveness.
There is a high development cost, although it is much smaller than the ongoing
American military presence in the Persian Gulf, or the costs of global warming, climate
change, or carbon sequestration. The cost of space solar power development always
needs to be compared to the cost of not developing space solar power.
Finally, in order for SSP to become a reality; it needs government support, cheaper
launch prices, and involvement of the private sector.
Although this project is big and outside LEED certification, its consequences would
reflects on the buildings and transportation systems on earth that would reward LEED.

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