Posted on 05/10/2020 5:23:39 PM PDT by BenLurkin
According to a Space Force press release, which went out on May 6, another payload aboard the X-37B will be an experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves.
Naval Research Laboratory’s head of beamed power has explicitly stated in the past that this system has enormous implications when it comes to long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition, it could allow satellites to provide reliable power anywhere on the planet or even to spacecraft or other satellites in orbit.
In October 2019, the NRL conducted a three-day long demonstration of the Navy’s latest power-beaming capabilities at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In the demonstration, the NRL transmitted a completely silent, invisible beam of 2-kilowatt laser power over 300 meters through the air over attendees' heads.
As far as the aforementioned applications of this capability, research or military outposts in remote locations would no longer have to rely on low-power solar systems or haul heavy generators and large amounts of fuel, but instead could bring a rectifying antenna, or rectenna, to capture energy in the form of microwaves beamed from satellites overhead. In addition, areas ravaged by natural disasters could use the system to generate electricity to aid in reconstruction efforts long before traditional electrical infrastructure is rebuilt. It could even power autonomous ships at sea.
Using lasers to beam power to small UAVs has been a subject of research for some time....This new concept is different, though, in that the beamed power UAVs the Navy envisions will feature traditional propulsion systems (such as rotors or propellers) and instead have rectennas that capture the energy from directed energy beams to constantly replenish their electrical power reserves.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
The concept has been a staple of science fiction for as long as I can remember.
Wonder if it can fry bacon?
Just google the term Tesla energy out of the ether. Very interesting..
*ping*
...another payload aboard the X-37B will be an experimental system designed by the Naval Research Laboratory that is capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves.
Yeah, that won't warm the atmosphere at all. Gerard K. O'Neill ping. Thanks BenLurkin.
I’m ok with a death ray in space. As long as it has no chinese hardware in it...
I remember when this concept was being pushed hard to power up the U.S., 73-74?
As usual the eco-nuts went berserk and it faded away.
I recall one of the claimed panics was that it would render migratory birds unable to navigate.
I bake bacon. Much less work. Just lay sliced bacon on cookie sheet ( foiled and Pam). Oven at 350 for 17 minutes. Check it then then leave it or take it out for desired crispness.
The amount of power compared to the total solar flux is so miniscule as to be unmeasurable. Also, the in-orbit collectors intercept some of that incoming solar flux, so there "may" be no net increase, or an actual decrease in energy reaching the earth.
Tesla’s dream has become reality....the sticking point was the efficient reception of such directed energy and conversion into useful amounts of electricity...
Tesla could beam energy out but couldn’t control it or convert it very well....
Looks like we can do it now.
Forget it. While it’s politically OK to kill birds with windmills, a military use of microwaves that may affect bird will be deemed intolerable.
Masers and lasers.....
Converting that energy back into a usable form in the amounts we would need was the problem.
Tunable oscillating crystals that vibrate within magnetic fields seems to be the best way as long as they didn’t disintegrate from heat.
Dilithium crystals.
Vibrational kinetic energy captured from the very vibrations of the earth was one way he did it.
I remember one shuttle mission where they tried to unravel a thin wire about a mile long. The goal was to see if the wire would pick up magnetic energy fluxes strong enough to generate electricity from. Apparently they only got only a few hundred yards or so, then the mechanism got stuck....still with what they did get out they did get some power production from it. So the experiment wasn’t a complete flop.
More like quartz, silicon and germanium. IN Europe they sell a wireless recharging system for phones and laptops we haven’t seen too much of in the US though we do have recharging “plates” for cell phones now that use the same “oscillation” techniques.
A rectifying antenna is a scaled up version of the above idea...tuned to laser light or microwave energy...they will oscillate within magnetic field coils which then get rectified into direct current electricity which gets stored and harnessed for power.
I'm sure it was "part" of the problem of practical application, but without a means of efficient transmission in free space...."ya got nuttin'.
Weapon spinoff?
Virus hates microwaves...
Scan the planet for a few weeks and kill off stuff sitting around kitchen counters, floors, hospital treatment rooms, and restaurant table tops...
Bye bye Wuhan filth virus... (of course the Chinese wrap their virus in layers of plastic before sending it through Amazon - - attached to commercial kitchen equipment etc...)
Microwaves go through plastic wrap, right?
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