Caltech has made a huge breakthrough in the field of space power generation by successfully transmitting solar energy from space to the ground without a wired connection, achieving a major breakthrough from 0 to 1.
The Caltech Space Solar Program announced this major breakthrough in a press release yesterday. The team successfully conducted the Microwave Array for Power Transfer Low Orbit Experiment (MAPLE) project, which enabled the wireless transfer of solar energy via the Space Solar Power Demonstrator in Orbit (SSPD-1), launched in January of this year.
The researchers said MAPLE’s transmitter array successfully used microwaves for the first time to transmit solar energy collected in space to a receiver on the roof of the Gordon and Betty Moore Engineering Laboratory at Caltech’s Pasadena campus.
