RKS Holding has completed work on the space power plant project. According to the concept, energy will be transmitted to Earth and spacecraft using a laser beam.
Russia has developed a project of a space power plant that will transmit energy to our planet and spacecraft using a laser beam. It will provide power to hard-to-reach areas. .
In the Earth's atmosphere, the sun's rays are scattered and almost completely lose their energy efficiency. At the same time in the open space solar energy can be converted into a laser beam and transmitted to Earth with minimal energy loss.
The complex proposed by RSC consists of two main components. The first one is a transmitting module: it is an unmanned spacecraft with an area of 70 square meters. The second is the receiving module.
The unmanned vehicle will accumulate solar energy and transmit it to Earth by means of a laser channel. Weather conditions and time of day should not play a role in this.
The spacecraft could also be used as an orbital "charging station", which would transmit energy to other spacecraft. Researchers believe it could be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit.
A few years ago, it was reported that experts from the Chinese Academy of Space Technology are working on an orbiting power station that would collect solar energy in space and transmit it to Earth. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced plans to launch the solar test station by 2025. It will be at an altitude of almost 36 thousand kilometres.
The station will be able to use electricity in the same way as if it was obtained by "earthly" way. If everything goes as planned by Beijing, larger and more powerful plants will be launched in the future.
To avoid the difficulties associated with launching heavy elements, Chinese experts suggest building them already in space. Robots and three-dimensional printing could be used for this purpose.
To recap, SpaceNews reported last year that China's advanced superheavy-lift Changcheng-9 carrier rocket - potentially China's most powerful launch vehicle - is being used to build the space power plant. According to some reports, it could even surpass the new US SLS (Space Launch System).
