2 ms·

> No it didn't. I think you are reading something in the headline that isn't there. They ended their first space based mission which was to test various things

• superkuh 3y ago
  I read the article. It's glaringly obvious that the goal is space solar power to earth. >"Solar power beamed from space at commercial rates, lighting the globe, is still a future prospect. But this critical mission demonstrated that it should be an achievable future," says Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. This mission did nothing to show that was achievable. The hard part isn't the vacuum. It's the distance which requires, because of physics, a large coherent emitting aperture. And the larger your aperture the harder it is to point. If they really wanted to make progress towards this they'd be building a km-scale coherent phased array for power transmission here on earth. The EISCAT scattering radars in the artic circle are much closer to proving feasibility for space based solar power than this is.
  • dekhn 3y ago
    You're being pedantic, and incorrectly pedantic. Complaining about a scientist saying "it's a future prosect... that should be an achievable future" is just silly. Look, I get it. I see a PR and I get angry at the implications. But it's just not worth overinterpreting this PR as justifying future research into beamed power delivery. My guess would be this has space-based military applications they're not discussing but that's purely speculation based on what we believe the military space community is already exploring.