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Solar-powered satellites could provide abundant free energy by placing large solar arrays in high Earth orbit to collect sunlight and beam it onto a rectenna on Earth. They would need actuators to stay pointed at the sun and autonomous robotics for maintenance. Launch costs are currently too high, but reduced launch costs or space manufacturing with local materials could be a solution. Solar satellites could extract even more energy if built closer to the Sun and could form the beginning of a Dyson sphere. However, they could also be used as a weapon.
Solar-powered satellites are a hypothetical future technology that could provide abundant free energy to people on Earth. The concept involves placing large solar arrays (50-100km2) in high Earth orbit to collect sunlight and beam it onto a rectenna on Earth, from where it can be distributed and used. Since Earth’s shadow would rarely obscure the sun from such satellites and is outside our photon-blocking atmosphere, a given square kilometer of solar panel in space would collect about 5 times more energy than a panel using the same area. on Earth.
According to calculations made so far, it is estimated that solar satellites would provide about one gigawatt of power per 10 square kilometers (3.86 square miles) of panel. The availability of nuclear power makes it doubtful that solar satellites will ever really be needed, but the concept is still interesting to consider. Thinking about these concepts helps us be creative when it comes to energy.
Solar satellites would need actuators to keep them pointed at the sun at all times. Autonomous robotics for maintenance could be useful. A substantial obstacle to the deployment of solar satellites is the current launch costs: they are too high. At $3,000 US dollars (USD) for a pound (0.45 kg), a solar satellite weighing hundreds or thousands of tons is nowhere to start. There are two plausible solutions: reduced launch costs, which could lower the launch price such that putting the satellite up there makes economic sense, or space manufacturing with local materials, such as lunar regolith or near-earth asteroids (NEOs). . . Turning NEOs into solar satellites and space colonies would be a good way to ensure that they don’t one day crash uncontrollably on Earth.
One reason people may be even more cranky about solar satellites as an energy source than nuclear power plants is that a properly constructed solar satellite could be used as a weapon. The means of transporting energy from space to Earth is through a microwave beam. If made widespread enough, such a beam would be completely harmless. You could stay in it with no ill effects. But if owned or taken over by an unscrupulous regime, a solar satellite could be turned into a wave cannon of doom.
If built closer to the Sun, solar satellites could extract even more energy. The intensity of light increases exponentially as one approaches the center of the Solar System. Solar satellites could one day be built in large numbers around the Sun, forming the beginning of a Dyson sphere.
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