By 
December 21st, 2021
Project Managers James Winter (Air Force Research Laboratory) and Tara Theret (Northrop Grumman) hold models of the photovoltaic and the radio frequency sides of the sandwich tile, while at the Linthicum, Maryland facility, to witness the conversion and beaming experiment. Courtesy photo/Northrop Grumman)
A fundamental programmatic step required to pave the way for a large-scale solar power collection system in space has been announced.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) Project is a team effort with Northrop Grumman.
That AFRL/Grumman team has successfully conducted the first end-to-end demonstration of key hardware for the Arachne flight experiment.
Sandwich tile
Specifically, a ground demonstration of novel components for the “sandwich tile” were used to successfully convert solar energy to radio frequency (RF) – key work toward a large-scale solar power collection system in space.
“The successful conversion of sunlight into RF energy in a lightweight and scalable architecture is a significant step forward in delivering the technology building blocks to achieve the Arachne mission,” said Jay Patel, vice president, remote sensing programs business unit, Northrop Grumman.
Credit: Northrop Grumman/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Building block payload
In 2018, AFRL awarded Northrop Grumman a contract worth over $100 million for the development of a payload to demonstrate the key components of a prototype space solar power system.
According to AFRL, successful testing of the individual tile for the Arachne payload provides a building block for a square meter panel of tiles – a threshold that has not yet been met by any other solar-to-RF experiments.
Image depicts Space Solar Power Incremental and Demonstrations Research (SSPIDR) project to beam solar power from space to Earth. SSPIDR consists of several small-scale flight experiments that will mature technology needed to build a prototype solar power distribution system.
Credit: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
Arachne is anticipated to launch in 2025. The sandwich tile is currently under development as an essential payload component for Arachne, and as a building block for a large-scale operational system.
Pivotal step
The sandwich tile consists of two layers. The first layer is a panel of highly efficient photovoltaic (PV) cells which collect solar energy and provide power to the second layer. The second layer is populated with components that enable solar to RF conversion and beamforming.
“Converting solar energy into RF energy at the component-level is a pivotal step to realizing space-based solar power beaming on a larger scale,” said Melody Martinez, SSPIDR deputy project manager in an AFRL statement.
Go to this Northrop Grumman video — From Science Fiction to Reality with Space Solar Power Beaming — at:
Posted in Space News
