Corey Bergsrud

Space Solar Power as an Enabler for a Human Mission to Mars

Space Solar Power (SSP), a technology based on the collection and aggregated transmission of light from the sun, offers an opportunity to create a deep space electrical infrastructure in order to provide the required level of power to a prospective Mars settlement. Several approaches to this challenge are presented and compared. Under the first approach, several Solar Powered Satellites (SPSs) are positioned in space between the Earth and Mars. These SPSs will capture large amounts of solar energy and transmit this energy in a focused beam via laser or microwave to relay SPSs until the energy finally reaches its Mars destination SPS. The Mars SPS will transmit the energy to a receiver and conversion station on the surface of Mars where it will be utilized for continuous operations. A second prospective approach is to place a constellation of SPSs in orbit of Mars which collect solar energy and transmit it (in aggregate form) to one or more ground stations, when they are overhead of them. Both of these prospective approaches are compared (in terms of cost, benefit and system reliability) to a technically simpler solution of placing a collection of solar panels on the surface of Mars for energy collection. This paper considers the logistical requirements for maintaining a deep space electrical infrastructure. It also determines the number of SPSs required for this infrastructure and the array sizes needed to output optimal return. A similar approach is taken to determine the ideal configuration of SPSs on Mars. The power requirements for the Martian colony will be estimated to facilitate evaluation of whether the SPS power technology is suitable for meeting them. The serviceability of the three approaches and associated maintenance and upkeep cost are also considered. Reliability of power for the Mars colony is absolutely essential necessitating redundancy and preventative maintenance of the SPSs as well as the maintenance of orbital alignment. From the foregoing, a characterization of conditions under which each approach is best suited is presented. A pathway to the implementation of this system is also discussed.

Survey of ground antenna systems for solar power satellite application

The purpose of this work is to survey ground based antenna systems, specifically rectifying antennas (rectennas) for space solar powered application of Microwave Wireless Power Transfer (MWPT). The ground rectenna along with its circuit components (a receiving antenna, an input Low-Pass Filter (LPF), a rectifying circuit, and an output smoothing filter) is the basic building block of the high-power receiving array that is designed to capture and then convert the microwave energy into Direct Current (DC). Once in DC form, the energy is used for various human applications on earth.

Rectenna Array Equipped on Satellites

Space solar-power satellites may one day transmit large amounts of high-powered microwave beams to Earth from geostationary Earth orbit. New spacecraft can be designed to prosper from this new available source of energy by equipping future spacecraft with a rectenna array or hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array system. This idea offers prospective benefits, such as extending the mission lifetime of the spacecraft through increasing the life of the power generation function and reducing the power generation units mass. This paper explores the integration of rectenna array and hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array systems into future spacecraft and compares this method to the conventional photovoltaic array method, considering mission and component life, mass, area, and energy harvesting capabilities. Cost is compared between conventional photovoltaic array and the rectenna array. This paper shows that the integrated hybrid photovoltaic/rectenna array power generation unit seems a viable option in obtaining the ...

Microstrip aperture-coupled antenna design for in-space power reception experiment using nano-sized satellite

The concept of space solar power (SSP) satellites has been around since 1968 and is the vision of placing huge satellites (on the order of 1 square kilometer) into geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) to harvest gigawatts of the suns radiant energy and transmit it to Earth where it is collected and converted to usable direct current (dc) power by a rectifying antenna (rectenna) array (larger than the transmitting satellite) and injected into the electrical grid. Yet over 40 years later there is still no operational SSP due to the economics and associated risks, public awareness, political agendas and from lack of demonstrations to these audiences.

Investigating the design of a nano space solar power satellite

This work explores the development of a Nano Space Solar Power Satellite (NSSPS). The NSSPS will be restricted to a maximum of 50 kg and with a linear dimension of 50×50×60 cm. This work will investigate fitting a power generation system, Microwave Wireless Power Transmission (MWPT) system, and other required satellite subsystems (communications, attitude determination and control, sensors and bus, onboard computing, guidance and navigation, and propulsion) within the aforementioned restrictions. The challenge is to design the NSSPS optimally in order to generate and transmit a meaningful amount of power for future space-to-space MWPT demonstrations.