Transmission
How power moves in space. Wireless power transmission, microwave and laser beaming, rectennas, and the physical wiring that carries current between systems.
Power delivery without wires
Power beaming is the proposition that energy can be moved as electromagnetic radiation rather than through physical conductors. The concept spans microwave transmission from geostationary orbit to ground-based rectennas, laser links between spacecraft, and optical relays that bounce energy through airborne nodes. Each approach has a distinct efficiency chain: DC-to-RF or DC-to-optical conversion, transmit aperture efficiency, atmospheric propagation losses, and receiver conversion back to DC electricity. The measured versus assumed links in that chain determine whether a beaming concept is a demonstrated capability or an assembled projection.
The daily analysis stream tracks beaming demonstrations and concepts from DARPA's POWER program laser tests to NASA's space-based solar power cost studies, alongside the power management and distribution architecture that moves electricity through a spacecraft bus once it arrives.