Mpt

Research into power transmission via microwaves occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s - during the Kuwait oil crisis - by NASA, called Microwave Power Transmission (MPT), or Solar Power Satellite (SPS). The MPT approach could theoretically allow solar collection satellites, orbitting near the sun to collect solar energy, without any interference, which would then be converted into concentrated microwave energy, and transmitted to ground rectifiers (Receiving Satellites) on earth, to be transformed directly (Without the use of a turbine, due to it already being an electromagnetic form of energy) into electrical power.

Also possible, the SPS approach would involve a large satellite (5km*20km, 50,000 tons) with solar cells (Si or GaAlAs) in geostationary orbit (36,000km above the Earth). It could generate 5 to 10 GW power and use a microwave for transmission of the energy down to rectification dishes at a frequency of 2.45GHz. Many technological key issues which must be overcome before the SPS realization. The problem contains not only the technological development of microwave power transmission with high efficiency and high safety, but also scientific analysis of microwave impact onto the space plasma environment.