Innovations by Radio Amateurs - Pentagon scientists successfully test solar panel in space

KA4DPO · Mar 22, 2021

W1YW said: ↑

Microwaves from powersats make no sense to use as a space to earth based weapon. The energy density is too low at the ground. If you wanted to get hundreds+ of watts per square meter at target, you SPS sat and reflectors would so so huge that it would be like shooting at the side of a barn, so to speak. Easy to take down a fairly delicate space structure. A sitting duck.

Your sense that 'powersats could be used as weapons, so interest has gone down' is not correct. SPS interest is at record highs (pun intended). There is a rather large cottage industry at low TRL levels.

The main problem with lasers is they are very inefficient. They have a tight beam but the energy wasted in pumping is high. So you could do lasercomms space to earth, but again, the sat ends up quite big to charge the batteries.
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Likewise, they don't make much sense as power sources either. No mention of absorption losses of energy through clouds or rain, and the efficiency is just not cost effective at all. It's a cool demonstration, but not much else.

Innovations by Radio Amateurs - Pentagon scientists successfully test solar panel in space

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