The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reports that researchers in the country have successfully transmit wireless electric power to a pinpoint target located 55 meters away.
In the experiment, JAXA researchers transformed 1.8 kilowatts of electric power into microwaves which were accurately transmit to a receiver located 55 meters from the source of the transmission.
A researcher at JAXA quoted, Yasuyuki Fukumuro, as having said that the researchers “are aiming for practical use” of the technology in the 2030s. While the distance researchers managed to beam the energy wasn’t huge, the technology could eventually lead to the tapping of the vast amount of solar energy available in space, as the energy collected from solar satellites could be beamed back down to the planet through wireless energy transmissions.
Subsequently, the world’s first successful wireless transmission of high-output microwaves to a small target could result in the implementation of microwave-transmitting solar satellites positioned in medium earth orbit (MEO) roughly 35,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface.
Satellites in MEO are generally used for navigation, communication and geodetic/space environment science. JAXA believes that a receiver on Earth with a roughly 3-kilometer radius would create up to one gigawatt of electricity, which is about the equivalent of one nuclear reactor.
While the distance researchers managed to beam the energy wasn’t huge, the technology could eventually lead to the tapping of the vast amount of solar energy available in space, as the energy collected from solar satellites could be beamed back down to the planet through wireless energy transmissions. The first time anyone has managed to send a high output of nearly two kilowatts of electric power via microwaves to a small target, using a delicate directivity control device.”
