The possibilities don’t end there. While we are currently relying on Earth’s materials to build power stations, scientists are also considering using resources for production, such as material found on the moon.
But the next big challenge will be to get the power back to Earth. There are plans to convert electricity from solar cells into energy waves and transfer them to antennas on the surface of the earth using electromagnetic fields. The antenna will then convert the waves back into electricity. Researchers led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have designed and demonstrated an orbiter system that should be able to do this.
There is still a lot of work to be done in this area, but the goal is to make solar power stations in space a reality in the coming decades. Researchers in China have created a system called Omega, the goal of which they can operate by 2050. The system should be able to supply 2GW of power to the Earth’s grid at top performance, which is a huge amount. To generate so much power with solar panels on Earth, you would need more than six million of them.
Smaller solar power satellites designed to power lunar rovers could also be operational sooner.
Around the world, the scientific community is committed to the time and effort to develop solar power stations in space. We hope that they can one day be an important tool in the fight against climate change.
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Amanda Jane Hughes is a lecturer in energy engineering at the University of Liverpool, where she Research involves the design of solar cells and optical devices. Stephanie Soldy is a lecturer His skills in aerospace engineering at the University of Liverpool, and his expertise include spacecraft mission design and guidance, research and control, numerical simulations for asteroid and solar sail missions.
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This article The original appeared On conversation, and republished under Creative Commons license. This is the reason why there is no estimate for its carbon emissions in this story, As Future Planet Stories usually happens.
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