https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/wireless-energy-transmission-darpa

Wireless energy transmission one step closer thanks to DARPA

DARPA has selected RTX Corporation, Draper Laboratory, and BEAM Company to participate in the first phase of its ambitious POWER program.

Edited September 10, 20232 yr by martin-w

Three things immediately occur to me:

1) Environmental effects/Impacts

2) The networks vulnerability to disruption/attack/interference

3) Long term medical effects of exposure on humans?

3 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Three things immediately occur to me:

1) Environmental effects/Impacts

2) The networks vulnerability to disruption/attack/interference

3) Long term medical effects of exposure on humans?

 

1. Its just laser technology that transmits to a solar collector, so I wouldn't expect anything significant in that sense.

2.  As I say, lasers, so the beam would have to be interrupted to cut the power.

3. The laser has a safety shut off ring, so that anything that crosses it's path is safe. 

 

What immediately occurred to me, was efficiency, what are the power loses. 

 

Edited September 10, 20232 yr by martin-w

PowerLight, one of the companies behind this, has also developed the same system to provide power over fibre-optic cable. looks like all that fibre-optic power cable we saw in Star Trek TNG might be a reality. 

DARPA Wants to Use Lasers to Send Energy Directly to War Zones. This Is the Wireless Power Beaming Technology That Will Make It Happen. - The Debrief

 

Edited September 10, 20232 yr by martin-w

 

PowerLight Technologies

 

Quote

 

Safe operation is our top priority and a key design pillar. PowerLight has patented, tested and demonstrated active safety sensing systems that capture and control all generated light, making the surrounding environment safe without the need for laser-safety eyewear. Using our D³ (Detect, Decide, Deactivate) Safety Cycle, the system will automatically turn the beam off (in as little as one millisecond) if a foreign object approaches the beam path, then re-activate when the beam path is clear again. These safety features are unique to PowerLight – no other group has demonstrated a similar capability for power beaming at these power levels and distance ranges. These safety measures are fully integrated into transmitter and receiver interaction and have been independently validated by the US Navy’s Laser Safety Review Board.

 

 

Edited September 10, 20232 yr by martin-w

It will work great in a vacuum!🤣

I guess i'm pretty jaded at this point. Sometimes it seems like just about every new whizz-Bang universe-changing tech to make all our lives better (and make somebody a zillion dollars) eventually turns out to cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, inappropriate bathroom humor or outbursts of off-key singing......

3 hours ago, FBW737 said:

It will work great in a vacuum!🤣

 

It works in the air fine. What I'm not sure of is range and power loses. Although they say the power loss isn't great.

Feeding power to drones is one application they mention. In fact they've already powered a Lockhead Martin Stalker aircraft.

They also talk about beaming power into orbit.

Power and data over ethernet is around 100 feet max. Power and data over fibre is 10's of thousands of feet.

 

 

Edited September 10, 20232 yr by martin-w

Look up a guy by the name of Tesla

On 9/10/2023 at 12:20 PM, HiFlyer said:

I guess i'm pretty jaded at this point. Sometimes it seems like just about every new whizz-Bang universe-changing tech to make all our lives better (and make somebody a zillion dollars) eventually turns out to cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, inappropriate bathroom humor or outbursts of off-key singing......

 

picky-picky, nothing's perfect...

“China in the lead by planning to launch a solar power plant in space by 2028. This is claimed to be two years ahead of the original schedule initially proposed for the same project. Its roadmap for the launch is uncovered below.”

“The journal, Chinese Space Science and Technology, says that China will send a satellite at an altitude of 400 km to convert solar energy into electrical energy and further convert that into microwave or lasers, which are planned to be transmitted to various targets on earth. This can then be converted into electricity when the planet needs it. This project will power only a few homes as it generates 10 kilowatts. However, there’s proof for this project to be scaled into a mega power source. Besides, the new plan is believed to build a full-scale power plant in four stages.

Researchers predict that a full-scale microwave beam could project about 230 watts per square meter on the ground and could be as much as direct sunlight.

Two years after the first proposed satellite launch in 2028, another more powerful satellite will be launched about 36,000 km from the earth into a geostationary orbit to conduct more experiments. By 2035, a 10-megawatt power plant is said to send energy to the military and civilians. Researchers are foretelling that two gigawatts could rise from this station’s output by 2050.”

https://www.ceoinsightsasia.com/business-inside/china-is-beaming-into-the-spacebased-solar-power-nwid-9537.html#:~:text=By 2030%2C China wants to,viable solar space station operational. 

 

12 hours ago, 188AHC said:

Look up a guy by the name of Tesla

 

Tesla notion was to arc electricity from tower to tower, in fact he built a tower known as the Wardenclyffe Tower. Terribly inefficient of course and not workable in practice. I guess this is the modern equivalent, convert to light, transit, and then back to electricity again.

I'd still like to know what the conversion losses are for this new photonic system, can't find that figure on the internet. 

16 hours ago, Fielder said:

picky-picky, nothing's perfect...

Not sure a thalidomide baby (or its parents) would find that thought very comforting....

There are endless pages of other examples.