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Concept
Space-based solar power
Summary
Space-based solar power (SBSP, SSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in outer space with solar power satellites (SPS) and distributing it to Earth. Its advantages include a higher collection of energy due to the lack of reflection and absorption by the atmosphere, the possibility of very little night, and a better ability to orient to face the sun. Space-based solar power systems convert sunlight to some other form of energy (such as microwaves) which can be transmitted through the atmosphere to receivers on the Earth's surface.
Various SBSP proposals have been researched since the early 1970s, but none is economically viable with present-day space launch costs. Some technologists speculate that this may change in the distant future with space manufacturing from asteroids or lunar material, or with radical new space launch technologies other than rocketry.
Besides cost, SBSP also introduces several technological hurdles, including the problem of transmitting energy from orbit. Since wires extending from Earth's surface to an orbiting satellite are not feasible with current technology, SBSP designs generally include the wireless power transmission with its concomitant conversion inefficiencies, as well as land use concerns for antenna stations to receive the energy at Earth's surface. The collecting satellite would convert solar energy into electrical energy, power a microwave transmitter or laser emitter, and transmit this energy to a collector (or microwave rectenna) on Earth's surface. Contrary to appearances in fiction, most designs propose beam energy densities that are not harmful if human beings were to be inadvertently exposed, such as if a transmitting satellite's beam were to wander off-course. But the necessarily vast size of the receiving antennas would still require large blocks of land near the end users. The service life of space-based collectors in the face of long-term exposure to the space environment, including degradation from radiation and micrometeoroid damage, could also become a concern for SBSP.
Official source
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