Light Sail Propulsion Using Thin-Film Photovoltaic Technology

S. D. Potter, G. L. Matloff. (1996), JBIS, 49, pp.329-334

Refcode: 1996.49.329

Abstract:

Solar collectors in geostationary orbit, known as solar power satellites (SPS), have been considered as a means of supplying pollution-free energy to the Earth. The SPS would typically consist of a large rectangular solar panel, perhaps 5 x 10 km, with a 1 km circular antenna array, which would use klystron or magnetron tubes to convert the energy to microwaves and beam it to the Earth. There the microwaves would be converted to electricity and distributed to consumers.