After examining three different types of wood on board the ISS, the team concluded that magnolia wood is the most durable kind due to its overall strength and will therefore be used to build the experimental satellite.
When you think of constructing orbiting spacecraft, hauling lumber to outer space may be the last thing that comes to mind. As the recent experiment shows, however, the wood did not crack, peel, warp or suffer any surface damage after hanging out in low Earth orbit for nearly a year.
The researchers say that, in a first, MAPLE’s array of transmitters successfully beamed solar power collected in space using microwaves to a receiver on the rooftop of Gordon and Betty Moore Laboratory of Engineering on Caltech’s campus in Pasadena.
“Through the experiments we have run so far, we received confirmation that MAPLE can transmit power successfully to receivers in space,” said Space Solar Power Project co-director Ali Hajimiri in the press release. “We have also been able to program the array to direct its energy toward Earth, which we detected here at Caltech. We had, of course, tested it on Earth, but now we know that it can survive the trip to space and operate there.”
“No energy transmission infrastructure will be needed on the ground to receive this power. That means we can send energy to remote regions and areas devastated by war or natural disaster.”
Over my head. Completely. I'm just glad they know what they're doing.I think this is the break through besides the collection array ability. I'm still curious how they do it unless it's an induction type method with a small local unit on the house. But they do state no infrastructure so I'm assuming the receiver is small and portable?