{"id":75587,"date":"2023-01-16T01:47:17","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T01:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/01\/16\/harnessing-solar-power-in-space\/"},"modified":"2023-01-16T01:47:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T01:47:17","slug":"harnessing-solar-power-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/01\/16\/harnessing-solar-power-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Harnessing solar power in space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"content-anchor\" id=\"tldr-story-07\"><\/a> <strong>Can we harvest solar energy from space? <\/strong>Caltech <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caltech.edu\/about\/news\/caltech-to-launch-space-solar-power-technology-demo-into-orbit-in-january\">launched<\/a> a prototype solar power satellite into orbit \u2014 the Caltech Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) \u2014 earlier this month which will test and send back information on the feasibility of harvesting solar power in space, transferring the energy back to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g\">pale blue dot<\/a>. The satellite \u2014 part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacesolar.caltech.edu\/\">Caltech Space Solar Power Project<\/a> (SSPP) \u2014 is loaded with 32 kinds of photovoltaic cells to determine which are best suited for use in space, aiming to eventually launch a modular spacecraft to collect sunlight, transform it into electricity, and transmit that electricity back to Earth \u2014 expanding electrical access to places with reliable and stable power.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Harvesting solar power isn\u2019t new <\/strong><strong>\u2014<\/strong><strong> but sending it back to Earth is: <\/strong>Solar energy has been the primary means of powering spacecraft since the Vanguard 1 was <a href=\"https:\/\/nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov\/nmc\/spacecraft\/display.action?id=1958-002B\">launched<\/a> in 1958. The International Space Station is powered using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/station\/structure\/elements\/solar_arrays-about.html\">solar arrays<\/a> mounted on a blanket that convert solar energy to electricity, producing more electricity than the station needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And others are looking into it: <\/strong>The UK-based <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceenergyinitiative.org.uk\/\">Space Energy Initiative<\/a> has plans to place a constellation of satellites into high Earth orbit to capture solar energy and beam it back to Earth, the BBC reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g\">last year<\/a>. In the US, the Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/afresearchlab.com\/technology\/space-power-beaming\/\">Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research Project<\/a> is also working to harvest solar power in space and transmit it back to Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can we harvest solar energy from space? Caltech launched a prototype solar power satellite into orbit \u2014 the Caltech Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) \u2014 earlier this month which will test and send back information on the feasibility of harvesting solar power in space, transferring the energy back to our pale blue dot. The satellite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[11,73,1427,88],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-75587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-your-way-out","tag-enterpriseclimate","tag-on-your-way-out","tag-outer-space","tag-renewables","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"b233978f-71ed-4af6-a8d4-f97d5b27969c","is_powered_by":true,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2023\/1\/926.jpg","photo_position":"above","related_issue":[75572],"teaser":"","voice_url":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harnessing solar power in space - Climate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/01\/16\/harnessing-solar-power-in-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harnessing solar power in space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can we harvest solar energy from space? Caltech launched a prototype solar power satellite into orbit \u2014 the Caltech Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) \u2014 earlier this month which will test and send back information on the feasibility of harvesting solar power in space, transferring the energy back to our pale blue dot. 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